[noodle]

Nyoronin and MMM, thank you for explaining that English isn't an "easier" language. I thought I would do it, but I felt that it would be better if it was explained by someone who actually speaks both languages.

I think the biggest problem is that westerners can't get around the idea of the number of Kanji you have to learn and the ever so famous "you should studying Japanese seriously for about 4 years to be able to read a newspaper". This sentence is ever so annoying because I never see a 9 year old native English speaker (who has been studying english for 4 years or more) read The Times for example, or any serious newspaper for that matter.