Um.. okay.
I realise that I'm not as dedicated as some - I go to classes a couple of hours a week, and often don't have time to study much beyond that. Currently I run a business (which often means more than full time work), take belly dancing classes, teach web design, do a lot of crafts, have a busy social and professional networking life and study Japanese. Yes, I could study more - I am trying to. But at this point in my life when I finish my work for the day I want to do something relaxing, and Japanese is not relaxing for me.
I will stand by my statement that Japanese is a difficult language to learn compared to some. For example, I studied Indonesian in highschool - easiest freaking language ever! Just being able to use the same writing system that you're used to makes things so much easier. So I do have an issue with this statement:
Quote:
Originally Posted by SHAD0W
6 - It's only a different writing system, just becasue it takes longer to master it doesn't make it any more difficult. Get over it.
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It definitely makes things more difficult to learn, as the scope of what you have to learn to be functional is so much wider. Add to that the number of kanji and complexity of characters is far greater than the alphabet that we use - I absolutely think that it's harder to learn. When I speak to Japanese people other than my teacher about my struggles with kanji, they often admit that they have trouble with them too - even that reading a newspaper they often see kanji that they don't know the exact meaning of. If native speakers/writers of the language have trouble with it themselves.... I'd say it's a difficult language.
Definitely think that Chinese is harder though! Tones, I do not get them O_O