He chuckled and finished his second bagel, brushing off some crumbs from his sleeve. "That's because of the kanji. Kanji is always a bit hard before you get the basic forms down. Be glad they don't make you learn the differences between on'yomi and kun'yomi readings these days. They just say 'it means this' and never bother to tell you why. We used to have to know all the histories of all the kokuji kanji before we were allowed to master the basics of the on'yomi."
He paused in his selection of another bagel and thought about his past schooling. "Huh. In fact I doubt they bother to teach you any of that until graduate language studies. Feh, so much has changed."