yeah i feel you man, what i cant stand is all the different ways to spell the same sound
cough, sloth, austrailian, awe, fawn, etc
or the other way around, different ways to pronounce the same letters
cough, rough, through, bough
japanese is way better in that respect, every character can only be pronounced in one way.
they may have 46 characters, instead of 26, but they consist of only 5 vowel sounds, nine consonant sounds.