Learning to write Japanese makes my brain hurt

Okay, so some quick background information on me. I'm on my third semester studying Japanese. The end of this semester will mean I have been studying for about a year and a half.

Inevitably this meant I would learn the Japanese writing system. For those of you that don't know, the Japanese use three different systems as a means to communicate. Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. I knew basic things like that, but I really doubt I knew what I was getting myself into when I signed up for Japanese.

Katakana is mainly used for foreign loan words. Words like ファーストキス (Read as "Faasuto kisu"; translated to "first kiss") and ショック (Read as "shokku"; translated to "shock") are examples. In my class, we learned this first.

But still, overall, Katakana isn't that bad. You'll notice the characters have kind of a sharp edge to them, which I find pretty easy to write. The hardest part is actually trying to pronounce them. Since most of them are of English origin, your (or at least my) mind will want to pronounce it as an English word, which is totally wrong. So many people think of Katakana words as English words and that totally throws them off. You have to realize that as soon as they are written in Katakana, they become Japanese words and need to be pronounced as such. Even with that said, words like ウィスキー (read as "uisukii"; translated to "whiskey") still makes my tongue hate me.

Another random thing that makes Katakana more difficult is that occasionally you'll come across characters that look pretty similar. For example, ン ("n") and  ソ ("so"). Because both are Katakana characters and both can appear in the same sentence (or in the same word), it took me a while to be able to functionally tell the two apart. If it were just those two it wouldn't be so bad, but there is also シ ("shi") and　ツ ("tsu") and a couple of others that will throw Japanese students for a loop.

And that's just Katakana; 1/3rd of the Japanese writing system. I haven't even touched on Hiragana and the dreaded Kanji.

Okay, so if you've read this far you're probably ready to cry. But don't worry, there is good news. Once you learn the basic 46 or so Katakana characters, you'll have a head start learning Hiragana. This is because each Katakana character has a match in Hiragana (and the opposite is true as well). For example, "ra" is ラ in Katakana and　ら in Hiragana. Both are read exactly the same way, "ra". So in essence, by learning Katakana, you've pretty much learned Hiragana as well. You just need to re-learn what each character looks like. Unfortunately this also means more characters that look alike. Behold れ, ね, and わ ("re", "ne", and "wa") to name a few. But eh, I can't complain too much. There is a feeling of accomplishment when you finally do master Katakana and Hiragana.

Which leaves Kanji. Oh boy where to begin? First, I should mention that both Hiragana and Kanji are used for Japanese words. The difference is Hiragana is all about sounds - each Hiragana character represents one to three letters ("a", "ma", "ri", etc..). And you need a bunch of Hiragana characters to actually form a word (わたし ; read as "watashi"; translated as "I" or "myself"). Sentences can get pretty long using only Hiragana, so that is where Kanji comes in. Just one Kanji character can represent a whole word (私 ; read as "watashi"; translated as "I" or "myself"). On one hand it's a lot easier in that it saves space, looks neater, and is overall more useful. On the other hand, there are thousands of Kanji characters to learn (as opposed to 46 or so Hiragana) which I don't have to tell you is quite a challenge for anyone.

And then you have the same situation as Katakana and Hiragana where a lot of Kanji looks similar. Last week I learned 人 (read as "hito"; translated as "person") and today I learned 入 (read as "iri").

So far, Japanese has a love-hate relationship with me. I wouldn't have it any other way.