[chryuop]

kono ha pen desu is wrong. In the demostrative when you have "no" (kono, ano, sono) you will have a name following it. When you have the dimostrative followed by "re" (sore, kore, are) they become pronouns and that means they can be used alone. When the same series and with "ko" (koko, soko, asoko) they are still pronouns but used to identify locations. so going back to you example:

kore ha pen desu (this is a pen).
kono pen ha akai (this pen is red).

For the second question the answer is yes...and learn the kana as fast as you can so you won't learn studying using our alphabet, which, if you ask me, it is the first mistake someone who want to study Japanese does.