"I contend that if a student can't get a reasonable reading knowledge of a language in the first year, there's no hope"

Just for pedantry's sake . . . Japanese students learn the 2000+ Joyo (regular use) characters through secondary school. So technically, they haven't learned to read every word in a newspaper until they finish high school--though I'm sure most can acquire new characters through general reading well before then.

In addition, there are about 1000 more not on the list, used in personal or place names, or in common compounds like the "sho" in "shoyu," "soy sauce."

Since it's easiest for me to learn foreign languages by reading, Japanese was extremely difficult for me. "No hope" actually comes pretty close in my case.