Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji

[Neko-chan]

Hi y'all!
I've been asking myself this for a long time, but I can't find the answer:
(correct me if I'm wrong) I think there are 2 types of writing in Japanse: Hiragana, Katakana.
But which one is the most important one to learn (I'm trying to learn Japanese but since I have a lot of other things to do for school I don't have much time to study it, I try to learn the essential first)?
Are there rules for when you should use which type of writing?
I'd really love it if someone could help me with this^^
thank you!!

 

[UNaruto1990]

Strange, you said Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji at first, and then you say 2 kinds, it's 3 kinds, also Katakana is mainly for foreign names and words taken from foreign countries, Hiragana is for Japanese words, while you can write only with both two, it's not usually done like this, instead Kanji is used to shorten some words I guess, so if you wanted to read a Japanese book, you HAVE to know Kanji...

You should learn the Kana (Hiragana and Katakana) first, as they won't really take much time, you can learn them both in a matter of 1-2 weeks if you don't really have much time, I suggest starting with the Hiragana as it will help you practice writting Japanese words, and then Katakana for foreign names and taken words, and then you should move to kanji, kanji will take alot of time though, because every kanji symbol has more than one reading and more than one meaning, so you should find yourself some good book, I suggest you look for books that teaches you Kanji by their origins, and their original pictures etc...

I hope I helped a little ...

 

[Neko-chan]

thx!!

Thank you, you did help me^^
the reason I wrote Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji was because at first, I thought there were indeed 3 types of writing, but then I talked about it with a friend and he told me Kanji was Chinese writing, so I got confused and changed it in the text, but forgot to change it in the title XD

So thank you for helping me out, I think I got enough information to get started^^

arigato gozaimasuu!!

 

[UNaruto1990]

Douitashimashite

 

[nice gaijin]

Kanji was originally taken from Chinese characters, but it's very much a part of Japanese now. UNaruto is right that kanji will take the most effort to master, and knowing your kana first will give you a good foundation to work on. Good luck.