Language Nerd Attack

I've had really nothing to do at work for the past week -- like at all. And no, that's not a good thing. It's fun for about one day, and any more time than that you just start to go crazy. So to keep myself occupied I've been making flash cards. Lots and loooooots of flash cards with different Japanese symbols on them.

The Japanese language is nuts. It's got 4 different "alphabets".

Romaji 　　-- a   e   i   o  u

Hiragana　  -- あえいおう　　(about 47 characters)

Katakana　 -- アエイオウ         (also about 47 characters)

Kanji           -- 　漢字                 (only about 2000 characters!)

All in all it's a good 2100 individual characters to learn and that doesn't include all the different combinations (like how 日 appears everywhere: 日、日本、今日、昨日、日記、日光、明日、毎日、月曜日), and that each kanji symbol can have three or four different pronunciations based on other kanji it's paired up with. Like 小 which can be shou, chii-, or o.

In short, learning Japanese makes you go crazy. 

Well to top it off, since computers are very good at figuring out Kanji when you're typing out words, the Japanese government has decided that they're just going to add TWO HUNDRED MORE OF THEM to the system. 

Thank goodness I don't have to spell out how I'm going to want my hair cut while I'm there, because I'd be walking out with a jacked up head.

(At least it's not Chinese)