My Japanese friend told me....

[TokyoRoze]

He told me not to study Katakana and it was not neceserry. why

[Daisuke]

Maybe because it is allmost only foreign words which are written in katakana.. But i don't see why you shouldn't study katakana. Anyways, why don't you just ask you friend?

[clay]

In my opinion, katakana should be studied a little, but not to the degree of hiragana. I learned hiragana first and never really studied katakana. I picked it up as I encountered katakana English words. In other words, I looked up the characters I didn't know until I learned them all. So it was painless.

Studying katakana may be useful if you are going to Japan soon. Katakana is everywhere in stores and advertisement.

[hihlordjp]

I disagree. I think you should learn katakana. It's got a lot of practical use.

[am_bee]

I think it is something you should learn, but I didn't rush about it. As I found words that used it, I looked up and memorized those characters, and as I did general studying I picked up the ones I didn't see in vocab.

[TokyoRoze]

I cant tell my japanese friend because he speaks little english and he is 100% because he speaks little english and he is 100% pure　
日本人

[nyanya]

You need to know katakana to write your name and other foreign words--you need to know it at some point. There are a lot of borrowed words in Japanese that will be written in katakana. But yes, it isn't used as much as the others.

[TokyoRoze]

Thanks アリガト

[Spaztick]

Katakana is also used to write words with emphasis in them, kind of like itallics or all caps in English.

BTW do you write "katakana" in kana or kanji?

[clay]

usually katakana is written in katakana カタカナ but you can write it in kanji 片仮名

[Daisuke]

Is "kana" written in kanji?

[clay]

Kana is the general term for kataKANA or hiraGANA (k turns to g) and just means the Japanese syllabic writing system in general.

[Daisuke]

.. damn me, i do not think before i ask. Sorry.