What's the hardest part about learning Japanese?

[luna2]

Originally Posted by MMM

If you write Japanese the way you type English...

oh i cant type for jack lamo!!!XD
i can write really well but im so slow at typin japanese ^^

[Shadowulf]

hahah kanji because most of my practise comes from emails, so writing kanji becomes my nemesis

[Cyclamen]

There can be a lot more than two...

That's the point. Kanji itself (as for radicals, stroke order, etc.) aren't very difficult, they just have to be memorized and this process takes time and patience, but it's only the effort putting into learning them that makes them difficult.
Both chinese and japanese languages have kanjis, but japanese kanjis are a lot more difficult to learn properly.
For example, the kanji 下　has eight different pronounciations!!
か、げ、した、もと、しも、さ、くだ or お (as in 下がる、下さる、下りろ)
In chinese, the kanji above is pronouced just "xià" (4th tone).

As for keigo, kenjyougo and other honorific forms, they are very difficult because you have to understand the level of the person whom you're referring to. Basically, to get all these forms easily you have to fully understand the japanese society and merge into it... you have to "become japanese" and think as one of them. And that's the most difficult thing in the world.

[kuroisaiyajin]

I see kanji's the number one enemy, and rightfully so since there are so many to learn and so many readings for each. But I've found that you can get away with out learning it 100% while surviving in Japan, because most Japanese people I know have had me show them a few kanji even they have had to look up. I went with honorifics, if you make the small mistake of not remembering one at the right time it can make a very uncomfortable situation, and it's been very hard for me to remember all the verb changes, and which nouns have お in front of them. Same thing for the humbling form.

[Harold]

Kanji! My friend from Yokohama says she knows some people who have to use their keitai to check certain kanji. They're native Japanese, too!

[MMM]

High school graduates will have learned, I believe, 2500 kanji by the time they graduate. There are at well over 10,000 kanji in Japanese, but it takes 2,000 to 3,000 to read a newspaper comfortably.

If you think you need to know all these kanji fluently to function in Japan, STOP WORRYING! I probably had a good handle (reading) of, hmmm...400-500 kanji when I moved there, and that was MORE than enough to get by. The most important ones I learned were place names and people's names when I got there (so I could read a map to take the train home) but those come quickly. I never read the newspaper, but they have bilingual news on TV. And, of course, English language newspapers.

My point is, kanji learning is a lifetime project. You can be done learning hiragana and katakana, but you will never end your kanji study...Japanese citizen or foreigner. Many Japanese game shows feature "read this Kanji" type quizzes. Fun to watch.

[kuroisaiyajin]

I almost freaked the first time a Japanese friend of mine couldn't read a couple kanji, just to find out there were maybe hundreds more he didn't know. Made me feel a lot better knowing that I didn't have to learn everything in the dictionary. I hear there are around 4,000 commonly used kanji, and about 2,000 of those were mainly used for names. Any truth to that?

[MMM]

Originally Posted by kuroisaiyajin

I almost freaked the first time a Japanese friend of mine couldn't read a couple kanji, just to find out there were maybe hundreds more he didn't know. Made me feel a lot better knowing that I didn't have to learn everything in the dictionary. I hear there are around 4,000 commonly used kanji, and about 2,000 of those were mainly used for names. Any truth to that?

Depends on what you mean by "names". Kanji names for people and places are read differently than if they are read for nouns, verbs, etc.

For example, 本　is usually read as ほん　when talking about books,

but read as もと when it is is someone's name. For example 橋本　is read はしもと.

The line between what is "commonly used" and "not-commonly used" is probably several hundred, if not more, kanji wide. The 2000-3000 kanji required to read a newspaper also include names, and kanji used in names are also used in other readings. What I mean is there is no distinction between "name kanji" and "non-name kanji". If there were, people's names wouldn't have meaning.

[kuroisaiyajin]

Originally Posted by MMM

Depends on what you mean by "names". Kanji names for people and places are read differently than if they are read for nouns, verbs, etc.

For example, 本　is usually read as ほん　when talking about books,

but read as もと when it is is someone's name. For example 橋本　is read はしもと.

The line between what is "commonly used" and "not-commonly used" is probably several hundred, if not more, kanji wide. The 2000-3000 kanji required to read a newspaper also include names, and kanji used in names are also used in other readings. What I mean is there is no distinction between "name kanji" and "non-name kanji". If there were, people's names wouldn't have meaning.

Completely understood, as that's one of the first things I learned about kanji, but I have heard of kanji that are reserved for names only, which have no meanings. I can read some common last name kanji like 山田 and 太郎, and know that each kanji has it's separate meaning, and possibly another meaning while conjoined that I may not be aware of. I think my kanji jisho has a separate section for name-only kanji, but it's been out of use for so long I can't find it.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by kuroisaiyajin

Completely understood, as that's one of the first things I learned about kanji, but I have heard of kanji that are reserved for names only, which have no meanings. I can read some common last name kanji like 山田 and 太郎, and know that each kanji has it's separate meaning, and possibly another meaning while conjoined that I may not be aware of. I think my kanji jisho has a separate section for name-only kanji, but it's been out of use for so long I can't find it.

You are talking about a very gray zone, of which I should concede to a native speaker. However, there are kanji that you see mostly in names, and not in non-name usage, but that is far from a majority of the kanji learning you shoud do.