文字列の分割

Python 
>>> str = "abcde"
>>> for x in str:
...  print x + ' ',
...
a  b  c  d  e
>>> str[0]
'a'
>>> str[1:3]
'bc'
>>> str[3:]
'de'
>>> str[:2]
'ab'
>>> str[:]
'abcde'
>>> str[::1]
'abcde'
>>> str[::2]
'ace'
>>> str[::3]
'ad'
>>> str[::4]
'ae'
>>> str[::]
'abcde'
>>> str = "あいうえお"
>>> str
'\x82\xa0\x82\xa2\x82\xa4\x82\xa6\x82\xa8'
>>> for x in str:
...  print x + ' ',
...
（無惨）
>>> str = unicode("あいうえお",sys.getfilesystemencoding())
>>> str
u'\u3042\u3044\u3046\u3048\u304a'
>>> for x in str:
...  print x + ' ',
...
あ い う え お
>>>

この辺がCっぽい。