I think the best example of Chinese being "hard" is that a huge number of Chinese-Americans who have spoken Chinese almost daily from childhood can converse flu

I think the best example of Chinese being "hard" is that a huge number of Chinese-Americans who have spoken Chinese almost daily from childhood can converse fluently but rarely read/write above a middle school level. With many other languages there isn't such a huge difference in required knowledge between being able to speak/listen and being able to read/write.