Firstly,you should remember some easy but basic words,which usually ara pictographes. And they usually make up of other complicated words. Secondly,you should understand some simple rules ,which could explain the meaning of each parts of a chinese word. Eg, 想(xiang)means think,dewell. we could explain its structure like that: the up-part (相xiang)pionts out the pronunciation and the below-part points 心（means heart）out we should feel and think through our heart. by now, these are your priority of learning chinese words.