really? I tried the Chinese Menu site a couple of years ago, and it was surprisingly straightforward (but also just menu related words)

Sanskrit has a phonetic alphabet so it is more familiar and less daunting than looking at 1000's of word-characters

I've got my flashcards going for both languages though!

Phonetic, huh? That is encouraging.

yeah--only 33 consonants and 13 vowels. relatively economical!