I learned from my initial research that there is around 50K Kanjis, but one has to learn just over 2000 to be functionally fluent. Great so far. But then I saw other posts saying that you need only 1 month or so to learn both Hiragana & Katakana.
From what I understand, Hiragana + Katakana are simplified scripts while Kanji is the pure (??) traditional script. What I still don't understand is which one is more important for beginners. Hiragana & Katakana seem to be much easier, but if I plan to learn Kanji anyway, should I not bother with them? Or if I learn those two, can I put off Kanji for the time being?
Then there's Furigana and I have no clue what its purpose is!!! Wikipedia describes it as a 'reading aid', but if there already exists simplified scripts like Hiragana & Katakana, what's the function of Furigana??!!
This may just be a stupid question, but I'm completely clueless, so any help is appreciated.
by _norwester
