A friend of mine, who was born in Russia and lives in Sydney, is thinking about learning Japanese. His English is good but not great. The school we're looking at is the UNSW institute of languages, which teaches uses kana rather than Romaji, and uses Japanese for Busy People.

Are there any factors that he in particular ought to watch out for as a non-native speaker of English?

(As far as I can tell, his native language is Russian)

Is 避ける more commonly used as さける or よける or does it have a different meaning when read differently?

from the mac dictionary

さける•よける——「走ってくる車をさけよう（よけよう）としてころんだ」「水たまりをさけて（よけて）歩く」など、自分に害を与えるものや好ましくないものから意識的に‌​離れることを表す場合、相通じて用いられる。

「さける」は「人目をさけて暮らす」「視線をさける」「明言をさける」など、抽象的なものが対象の場合にも用いる。この場合「よける」は使わない。

「よける」は「落石をよけて事なきを得た」「相手のパンチをよけそこなう」のように、わきへ寄る、身をかわすなどの具体的な動作に重点がある。

@Flaw so it seems よける is used for more physical concrete things like bugs and punches

@jlptn1 Thanks. I think need to get a dictionary like that.

I guess this would imply that the word is usually in kana? Since there is a rather important difference between the two.

@Flaw yeah I wonder. I"ve been assuming 避ける as さける all this time.