[Seele]

Originally Posted by znromonk

I know that there are three kanas (hiragana, katakana, and kanji [it is not a kana is it ?]) but cannot figure out what is more commonly used, and what are each used for.

Hiragana for endings, particles, function words.
Katakana for words, taken from other languages (mostly from English)
Kanji for all other. Basically nouns, verbs/adjectives (except endings) are written with kanji.
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for ex:

the word "engineer"

There's japanese word for it 技師 reads like "gishi"

For beginners in books it will be written in hiragana, because it takes less time to start reading it then learning kanji.
So, in hiragana it'll look like ぎし

But there's an english word, which is also widely used. It'll be エンジニア　reads like "enjinia"


more example:

My name is Olga.
Watashi no namae wa Oruga desu.
私の名前はオルガです。

In this sentence "私 watashi" (I) and "名前 namae" (name) are written in kanji.
"オルガ Oruga" (Olga) is written in katakana, because it's a foreign name.
All other words are used for connecting, they're particals & functional words. They're in hiragana.

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Beginners start from learning Hiragana & Katakana, books for them are written in these 2 alphabets.
Learning Kanji takes a lot of time, so for you to be able to understand at least smth before you know Kanji, you need to learn H&K.

Originally Posted by znromonk

I might learn better if I can ask questions when I see something I did not understand

Really the best way! =D But for that you need to have someone you can ask.)) May be you can find here Language Exchange Community - Practice Foreign Languages

Originally Posted by znromonk

Since this is an exchange ads section, I don't know what I can offer in return. My English writing is quite decent and I was told by my professor that my writing has a lot of comma splices (:P). If I can help with anything within my power I will.

There're lots of Japanese, who're eager to learn English. If you were in US (but you're not native, right?), still you speak it very good & may be have an american pronounciation. That can be a great thing for an exchange.

Originally Posted by znromonk

(I also would like to know why it is romanized 'masu' and not 'mas', which is what I hear.

That's a reduction, when you speak. But in written Japanese after each consonant comes a vowel, it's a syllable alphabet. The only exception is letter N ん　



Hope, it helped =.=" I'm not good at teaching Japanese, cuz I'm also a beginner))

Goog Luck at your studies! ^__~