Do the Japanese actually say Famicon.. with the N sound?

[o.pwuaioc]

Compared to Japanese, English is a total clusterfuck of random bullshit. With Japanese, you know exactly how a word is spelled and pronounced.

Depending on dialect. Tokyo dialect contracts in pronunciation more than other parts. For example, どういたしまして looks as if it should be pronounce -dō-i-ta-shi-ma-shi-te, but really it's pronounced -dō-i-ta-shi-ma-sh'te.

Well, that is until you consider their 10 thousand kanji characters. >_>

I never liked how numbers change depending on what you're counting. That annoyed the hell out of me. But I don't mind the kanji. I actually gave up Japanese because I wanted to learn kanji properly, i.e. Chinese. I started on Old Chinese with the Dao De Jing, but it's slow coming. A master's degree in a different field has since almost stopped my learning.

2. Yes, I know that. I am familiar with all the types of characters.

I don't doubt you at all, but I was clarifying in case other people might be confused. I also don't know about Honma or Menma. If I had the characters for the name, I could ask my housemate again. Since you watch a lot of anime (IIRC), any other examples would actually be useful to me. I'm always on the lookout for inconsistencies in language. Many speakers of foreign languages often claim that their language is 100% phonetic. I've since debunked it in Korean (although it does follow rules) and Russian among others.

[jfrost]

Compared to Japanese, English is a total clusterfuck of random bullshit. With Japanese, you know exactly how a word is spelled and pronounced.

Most Romance languages are like that too. I teach English as a side job and it is extremely difficult to teach pronunciation, since English has basically no patterns. Why the hell do you pronounce "read" in the present differently from "read" in the past? Makes no sense at all.

[pakopako]

Depending on dialect...

Why is it always about dialect?!?!

Yeah, yeah. Just griping over the wide range of international dialects, from English in the United Kingdom to English from LA to NY, people-speak is such a pain.

Many speakers of foreign languages often claim that their language is 100% phonetic.

They lie. Or they don't pay attention to all the nuances.
Language, much like mankind, is too old to be consistent.

Why the hell do you pronounce "read" in the present differently from "read" in the past? Makes no sense at all.

With my cousins and their friends, I tell them to use more short words than try to figure out why contradicting rules are in place.

"I will read the book." "This book is the one I want to read." "I finished reading that book." No "red" anywhere.