Quote:
Originally Posted by Columbine
You have to learn both hiragana and katakana, they have different roles in Japanese language and they are not strictly interchangeable. Saying there's no point in learning Katakana is like saying there's no point learning the letters X, Z and Q because they're not used as much as the rest.
Hiragana is used to support kanji and provide readings for japanese words that don't have their own kanji. Katakana is used for words imported from foreign languages. Your name, for example, other people's names, items on a menu, sports, scientific terms etc. It's used for emphasis in text sometimes, and for sound effects. If you don't know katakana, you will hit a point where you will be unable to read key words in a passage. Some text books also only provide katakana as an alternate reading to Kanji.
In short, Learn Them Both, or else stick a big hole in your japanese language ability.
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Ahh.. That makes sense, I wasn't sure the point but your explaination is quite clear. Thank you so much. I'm on hiragana now... I will begin on katakana.