[Khengi]

When I first started Japanese around 2 years ago, the problems I ran into were not sentence order (I got used to putting verbs towards the end quickly). It wasn't verb conjugation (it's actually easier than English), nor was it the Kanji, phonetics, or vocabulary.

I think it was just how different it was. A language where saying 'I'll call you (on the phone)' is translated with the words for 'phone' and then 'do.'

I'll call you -
電話をする。 (do (the) phone)

While this is obviously a literal translation, it was what confused me the most, as I learned that I could not simply take words and mix and match them to make a custom Japanese sentence, nor would a translator work. In fact, there are no shortcuts and instead you just have to bite your lip and learn it all.

A language where particles are taught with one meaning, but can have so many other meanings (mind you, this topic is referring to when I first started, meaning most of what I write now is behind me). Even my signature is riddled with mistakes and I'm not sure where they are are or how to fix them. Sure, I know an unnatural amount of Kanji for someone who's practiced for less than 2 years (nearly 4,200 Kanji - by 'knowing' them I mean I can identify what their base meaning is instantly, though my vocab count is a low, low 2,200), but that does not gauge my grammatical skill. A language where our precious pronouns are considered redundant (saying 'I' and 'you' and 'they' and even the subject of the sentence is redundant if known from context. While we do this in English as well, it's considered slang in a sense. In Japanese, it's standard for sounding natural).

The biggest problem in learning Japanese is because how vastly, insurmountably DIFFERENT it is. It's just not like English in any way, and very rarely will I see a coincidence that both Japanese and English share. A language where 同じ can be used as an adjective, and where 好き is taught to new students as if it was a verb (which I never liked). In all honesty, it would be better to isolate oneself in a box with Japanese radio, TV, music and nothing but books and study until you forget your native language. And if English is your native language, then you WANT to forget it, as the exceptions and oddities found in Japanese are light compared to English.

We learn Spanish and French so quickly, but struggle with Asian languages that have no grammatical foundation that adheres to our own. Is that not interesting? Do the Japanese find Korean to be an easy second language, but English to be nearly impossible? I wonder these questions and will ask a native when I get the chance.

What is it that you feel is the gap between English and Japanese, the philosophical and (practical) linguistic differences we share?

Please discuss, I truly desire people proficient in the language more than anything, but I do not discriminate against anyone who has a thought on this subject.