Japanese Letters and Writing System
- Original source: http://www.japong.com/japanese/basic/01_hiragana.htm
When you write Japanese, you have to mix three characters — hiragana (ひらがな), katakana (カタカナ), and kanji (かんじ：漢字). Katakana is mainly used for writing foreign words.
Hiragana (ひらがな：平仮名)
The hiragana originated from the calligraphy(or the cursive style) of Chinese characters, and it is supposed to have been made in the 9th century. For example, 以 became い(I), 加 became か(ka).
Katakana (カタカナ：片仮名)
This is a letter made by taking a part of kanji. 伊 became イ(i) , 加 became カ(ka). This is mainly used for foreign words, monologues, idioms, the name of the plant and to emphasize.
Kanji (かんじ：漢字)
There are two different ways to read Japanese kanji. The first one is to read the meaning(くんよみ：訓読み) and the second one is to read the sound(おんよみ：音読み). Let me explain the example of 女. When you see 美しい女(beautiful woman), you have to read 女 as onna(おんな) But when you see 美女(beauty), you have to read 女 as jyo(じょ). Many kanjis have a lot of different ways to read in kunyomi or onyomi through words. It depends on the situation so you might be so confused.
Regular-Use Chinese Characters(じょうようかんじ：常用漢字)
Japanese Ministry of Education announced 1945 Chinese characters which are generally necessary for Japanese living in 1981. These were newly organized in 2010, so the number was increased into 2136 characters.
Japanese Writing
If you write Japanese only in hiragana, you will lose your discernment of the sentence.(Romanji is too!) So it is usually desirable to mix Chinese characters and hiragana.
わたしはかんこくじんです (X)
私は韓国人です (O)
Moreover, katakana also be used in case of foreign words. And then you can see three different Japanese letters just in one sentence. How you feel? Are you exciting or anxious with this situation?