Quote:
Originally Posted by igorsk
I think they mostly find it amuzing. However, there are some Japanese that consider switching to romaji to be a good idea:
http://www.age.ne.jp/x/nrs/
BTW, Japanese has three writing systems compared to Chinese's one... so it must be enven harder to learn.  |
Actually, I'm fairly certain that it is generally agreed that Japanese is easier for westerners to learn than Chinese.
Two of its writing systems are largely (if not completely) phonetic, therefore not greatly more difficult to learn than a regular alphabet. And the use of Kanji in Japanese is more limited the use of Hanzi in Chinese, meaning that you really can read most written materials after learning only about 2000 - 6000 characters (please correct me as to the actual number, if I am wrong)... since things not written with those specific characters would be written with the phonetic writing systems.
Also, since all three writing systems are fairly distinct looking, there is little likelihood of confusing them for one another.
Oh, and Japanese doesn't have tones either.
- Ahi