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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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I think Japanese writing is really stupid. Any given character has many potential pronunciations, and they for some reason tacked on multiple syllabaries instead of just doing their own thing like the Koreans did.
Some of their printed media has both kanji and also a furigana pronunciation key so that younger people can read it, which makes me ask why they don't just use one system that everyone can read.
Typing is a nightmare because you type what you're saying phonetically, but then you have to select which kanji you want for the correct meaning, and you also have to switch between which version of the syllabary you want. It's too many extra steps.
Chinese is similar, but I forgive them because hanzi is their own historical system instead of a messy version of someone else's, and I feel like the pronunciations and meanings are much more consistent. I can appreciate the historical value and artistry of it in a way I just can't with Japanese kanji.
Initially I hated it for how very much it was. Over time, I've come around on the multiple scripts, the beauty of Kanji, the fun of writing them, the way it breaks up words, the way they convey ideas at a glance.
But the inconsistent pronunciations will always throw me. If even just at least the onyomi readings were always the same, it would make life so much easier.