Counting isn't hard, is it?

As I mentioned on NYE, I've started studying Japanese again, more consistently and intensely. A friend introduced me to a website that I can access on my phone that consistently teaches and reviews vocab and kanji (complex Japanese characters that make up many words). My goal is to improve in my reading, which shouldn't be hard because my level is quite low. But I hope it also overflows into my daily conversation too. 

The system is compelling and almost like a game. I'm enjoying it (most of the time) and definitely making progress like I haven't seen for over a decade, partly because I'm doing this more than once a day, everyday, and when I get stuff wrong, I have to answer the question again, a bit later, no escape if I want to make progress up the 60 levels.

But of course no new method makes learning a new language easy (especially for someone like me who doesn't have a high aptitude for learning new languages). So there are frustrations along the way. One is counting.

Counting in Japanese is a bit of a pain. Truly. They have more than one word for some numbers eg. 4 is "yon" or "shi". And, even more challenging, depending on what you count, the suffix (called a counter) you use changes.

Here's an explanation of counters that I found:

What Are Japanese Counters?

Japanese counters are the words used to count objects, people, lengths of time, events and so forth. Counters are usually single-kanji characters that have a special reading just applicable to their function as a counter.

Let’s think about counting in English. To count in English we usually take a cardinal number (i.e. one, two, three, etc.) and add it to an object. If we are making a plural, then we stick on that object’s plural ending. One cat becomes two cats; one fox, two foxes; one mouse, two mice.

Counting just doesn’t work like that in Japanese. Remember—Japanese has no real plural/singular endings, so it’s not going to be the same as the English system anyway.

So how do you count objects in Japanese? Japanese uses special counting words, which come in different categories according to what you are counting. The way to count long, narrow, cylindrical objects is different from the way you’d count thin, flat ones, for example. And the words for counting small animals differ from the words used for counting humans, etc.

For example (the characters at the end are the kanji):

one = ichi 　一
one person = hitori　一人
one machine = ichidai　　一台
one pen = ippon　　一本
one piece of paper = ichimai　一枚
one generation = ichidao　一台
one portion = ichibu　一部
one o'clock = ichiji　一時
first place or first or best = ichiban　一番

There are lots more counters than this. There are counters for small animals, lessons, volume, pages, day of the month, night, day, head of cattle and for objects that presumably don't fall under any special category like the more unusual ones for chopsticks, bowls of rice, tatami mats (traditional flooring we have in two of our rooms), single stem flower, and wheels.

Alas, I'm hopeful. Lots of practise will equal progress, right? I've invested money in this and  that is highly motivating for me. Not to mention the competitive side of me that wants to make progress in this game-like project.