And additionally, the phonetics itself is more complex than needed. Spanish has only 5 vowel sounds, corresponding to the 5 vowels of the Latin alphabet, as doe

And additionally, the phonetics itself is more complex than needed. Spanish has only 5 vowel sounds, corresponding to the 5 vowels of the Latin alphabet, as does Japanese. English has 20. This is quite a big deal for learning when your native language has a smaller phonetic inventory. My English level is officially C2 (the highest level in the EU framework) and still, I have to think for a second or two before using the words "sheet" and "shit"...