I took a year of Mandarin as an undergrad, and learned ~1,500 characters (at my best). The two approaches are just radically different (pun intended), with an a

I took a year of Mandarin as an undergrad, and learned ~1,500 characters (at my best). The two approaches are just radically different (pun intended), with an alphabetic writing system (not just Latin, but Arabic, Cyrillic, etc.) if you know the system, you can read texts in other languages that share that system aloud - without knowing what you're saying. With logographic systems like Hanzi, you may be able to guess at the meaning of a character you don't know by looking at its radical, but you have no idea how to pronounce it. I do think broadly speaking alphabets are easier to teach and to learn, though still not easy (ask any small child).