[wodenokoto]

You either really missed out on something when learning Chinese or you are in for a realization in Japanese. (Probably you just simplified your explanation)

The problem with Japanese kanji vs Chinese Hanzi is not just that Japanese has two (or more) common readings for every character, it’s that they don’t follow the phonetic element to nearly the same degree as Chinese.

In Chinese you really do have a fighting Chinese of reading a word out loud that contains never by you seen before characters.

In Japanese you will regularly come across names consisting only of known to you characters and you will still have no chance of knowing how to read them out loud.

But I totally agree with your main point: Japanese is not as difficult as it’s reputation will lead would be learners to believe but it does have some road blocks (mainly the writing system) that will stand in the learners way.

[Mediterraneo10]

> In Chinese you really do have a fighting Chinese of reading a word out loud that contains never by you seen before characters.

Not really. Sometimes you can guess the root without the tone, but you won’t get the tone itself, and so you can’t really claim to recognize the word. Tones are not optional in Chinese.