Ah, Japanese--the language of a beautiful country (and self-proclaimed anime fanatics). It's been a huge part of my life for a very long time, and I am so glad for the influence that it's had in my life. However, it's one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn, which means that there are quite a few struggles that come with learning it. Here are some of the struggles that Japanese learners are bound to know.

1. Counting systems

Honestly, counting to one hundred has simultaneously never been easier and harder. Overall, counting is not bad in Japanese--instead of English's ridiculous "eleven" and "twelve," Japanese just counts very simply. Fifty-five, for example, would translate loosely into five tens five (五十五. One hundred and thirty-eight is just hundred, three ten, eight（百三十八). Simple, right?

Wrong.

That is simply the basic counting system. If you're counting small living things, you have to add a suffix. Ichi, ni, san, turns into ippiki, nihikki, sanbikki. Counting long, cylindrical things? Ippon, nihon. And if you're not sure what you're counting, or if you're counting roundish objects? Forget ichi, ni, san, because your life is now hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu. There are so many more systems too, and though you don't have to learn them all, native speakers will use them.

2. Hiragana/Katakana

Overall, these two writing systems aren't too bad. They're not kanji (which we'll get to later). For the uninitiated, hiragana and katakana are systems of forty-six characters, much like our alphabet, that are combined phonetically to form words. Overall, definitely not bad. But there are definitely challenges. For example--when do you use one over the other? The rule of thumb is that if a word comes from a different language, you use katakana, and if it's Japanese, you use hiragana. For example, もも(momo, peach) is written in hiragana, since it's a Japanese word, but バナナ (banana, banana) is written in katakana.

But as with everything else, it isn't so simple.

なまえ (namae) means name, and it sounds like name a little bit, but it's a Japanese word that by coincidence sounded the same. And アルバイト (arubaito)? It means a part-time job. How does that sound like a language we're familiar with? But alas, it's a katakana word. And then sounding out words you know are katakana into the proper spelling is a mess of its own.

3. Kanji

So, imagine every word having a completely different pictorial character to represent it. Imagine having to learn all of them and having to wade through different pronunciations and different contexts.

Welcome to my hell.

Yes, there are patterns in kanji (the pictorial representations of words or parts of words), but sometimes they're just ridiculous. And there will always be mnemonics to remember them, but overall they cause stress, annoyance, and wondering why they exist in the first place (seriously, who thought 食 was easier than た? And honestly にもつ will always be easier to write than 荷物).

4. Identical characters

Callout post for katakana: your characters look too dang similar. ソ and ン (so and n)? シ and ツ (shi and tsu)? Please stop. I beg you, for the sake of my sanity.

And don't even get me started on kanji. Why are these things (閣、聞、間、問）with completely different meanings so similar?? Please, for the love of everything, stop this. I don't understand.

5. Levels of respect

Within the Japanese language, social status relative to the listener is completely ingrained. The way you form sentences says something about your relation with the listener, your distance from the listener, your status relative to the listener, and your attitude toward the listener.

As someone who's very anxious in social situations already, this creates a new level of hell. Because what if I get it wrong? I tended to use the super respectful form as a blanket term and generally, in Japan, they got that I was a foreigner and didn't take offense, but I've recently learned that using the respectful form for people your own age can add artificial distance. But using the short form too soon can have negative consequences as well. Honestly, it's a new level of social calculus that I'm not prepared for.

But for all the complaints I have with the Japanese language, it honestly is something I adore and am glad to spend four years studying. It's pretty amazing to see how it evolves and to see the nuances of everything.

And in comparison to English, I can't give it that much hate. I mean, at least there aren't silent k's!