Welcome to Japan! And welcome to hiragana, katakana and kanji. I hope you packed some aspirin.
Westerners tend to think of the Roman alphabet as being far easier to use than hiragana, katakana or kanji. After all, there are only 26 letters in our alphabet, compared to 48 symbols each for hiragana and katakana, so the alphabet has got to be easier! But of course, we are biased.
The real reason we think the Roman alphabet is easier is simply because we already know it.
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