All about the kanji, part 3: 国

The third most popular kanji in newspapers means 'country' or 'my country', which in turn typically implies 'Japan'. The kun reading is くに and the on reading is こく.
(If you're wondering what the difference between kun and on readings are, by the way, this Web page explains it clearly and succinctly, and, more importantly, this Web page does a decent job explaining when to use which.)
The picture showing the stroke order introduces a general set of rules about drawing kanji:

1. always draw from left to right or from top to bottom, never straight to the left or up.
2. always draw a box shape by drawing the left side first (up-down of course, see 1), then the top and right side in one stroke, and the bottom last.
3. If there's something in your box, draw the inside just before you draw the bottom.

You'll be happy that this kanji, whether alone or in combination with other kanji, almost always means 'country', 'national' or something obviously related with a country.
Also note that the kanji is, as far as I can tell, always pronounced こく or くに, although こく, in certain contexts, may of course become ごく.
I said 'almost always'. Here are the few exceptions where you might need help even if you know the other kanji:

• 一国 = いっこく = whole country, but also stubborn, hotheaded (I wonder what that says about Japanese national consciousness)
• 米国 = べいこく = the United States, but 米 means 'rice' (I found an explanation for it, but it's too boring to tell and has nothing to do with the meaning)
• 中国 = ちゅうごく = China, 'Middle Country', which is also how China writes itself.