Re: Rating Languages

From: "Raymond Brown"

> Unlike the Nguni languages I mentioned above, the phonology of Japanese is
> quite simple; it's quite easy to pronounce.  And I agree it's not so
> difficult to learn to speak (and hear).  But what makes it hard IMO is its
> complicated written system with its two sets of syllabaries (kana) and the
> few thousand kanji (Chinese characters).
When I lived there, most expats, if out of nothing but sheer necessity,
nailed the hiragana and katakana fairly quickly. Kanji were a bear for them,
though not really an issue for me due to previous heavy lifting I'd done
with Chinese. What I found difficult with Japanese was the politesse
hardwired into the system. Since there are *two* axes of politeness degree,
one toward the person you're talking to, one toward the person/thing you're
talking about, it gets tricky. And yet, that's the charm of the system;
never in English have I been able to set the atmosphere of a room,
*grammatically* as well as through word choice, as I have in Japanese
("would like" just doesn't cut it). Once you finally get it, the subtlety is
a delight.

Kou