Japanese. I've been studying it since 2001 and I still talk like a slightly sinister toddler. There are two phonetic alphabets of over 70 characters each. One is for Japanese words, the other for non-Japanese words like "computer" or "Starbucks". Then there's kanji, I can read about 2000 of them but so can the average Japanese elementary school student. There's casual Japanese, slightly more formal Japanese, very formal Japanese for talking to your superiors and humble Japanese, for talking about yourself in front of your superiors.
There are different words for numbers, depending on whether your counting days, people, flat objects, long objects, machines, buildings, books, small animals or large animals. Do we count small horses the same way we count large dogs? Who knows.
There are also number words used for counting birds and rabbits (not sure why those two get counted the same way, but you don't use the same words for counting birds and rabbits as you do for counting fish or cats.) Words only used for counting tofu. Books can be counted one way if they are lying flat, another way if they are standing upright on a shelf or a third way using the counting word for things that have been published.
And of course every area of Japan has it's own dialect, slang and special words that no one anywhere else in Japan will understand. There's a word for bicycle that's only used by people in Nagoya, for example.
I'm never going to be fluent!
There are different words for numbers, depending on whether your counting days, people, flat objects, long objects, machines, buildings, books, small animals or large animals. Do we count small horses the same way we count large dogs? Who knows.
There are also number words used for counting birds and rabbits (not sure why those two get counted the same way, but you don't use the same words for counting birds and rabbits as you do for counting fish or cats.) Words only used for counting tofu. Books can be counted one way if they are lying flat, another way if they are standing upright on a shelf or a third way using the counting word for things that have been published.
And of course every area of Japan has it's own dialect, slang and special words that no one anywhere else in Japan will understand. There's a word for bicycle that's only used by people in Nagoya, for example.
I'm never going to be fluent!
