minodragon wrote:I stilldo not realy get it... So what is mainly used now?
They use all three writing systems at the same time. Hiragana is used for native words that have no kanji or are only partly kanji. Katakana is used for foreign words. And Kanji is use for everything else. Once you get used to it, it really flows rather nicely. Remember, written Japanese doesn't use spaces, so this is very helpful in breaking up the sentences into easily identifiable parts.
For Example:
日本語はクールです。(Japanese is cool.)
That sentence breaks down like this:
日本語 (Japanese) - Kanji
は (Topic Marker) - Hiragana
クール (Cool) - Katakana
です。(Verb, to be) - Hiragana
"Japanese" is written in Kanji, "Cool" is written in Katakana because it was lifted from English. "Ha" and "Desu" are written in Hiragana because they are native words and have no Kanji (As far as I know, anyhow).
Now why did they decide to use 3 different systems in the first place? I don't know. I assume that it is this way merely to piss off foreigners like us. Don't try to deny it, Japan. We're on to you.
I hope that helps you out a little, minodragon.
