[Shaelyn]

I wanted to tell ya a few things.

katakana - syllabary used for foreign words - such as Texas and New York.
hiragana - syllabary used for native words - such as sensei and sushi, if you don't know the kanji for them, or if there isn't a kanji for them.
* tobacco is evidently the only foreign word that is written in hiragana.
kanji - used for ideas, such as love, bright, child.

now the thing to beware: some characters look EXACTLY ALIKE. the difference between the characters is in the stroke. ...and some look really similar, the difference being in the stroke. examples (all in katakana): shi シ and tsu ツ or so ソ and n ン

just randomly picking up calligraphy when you don't know Japanese isn't going to be an easy task. the strokes are too important.

good luck!