Can it get any more complicated than this?

"There are 3 kinds of letters in Japanese - hiragana, katakana and kanji (Chinese characters). Hiragana and katakana are phonetic representations of sounds, and each letter basically corresponds to one mora (a unit of sound). Kanji convey meanings as well as sounds.

In Japanese script, all these types of letters are used together. Katakana are used to write foreign names and loan words. 1945 kanji letters are fixed as essential for daily use. Hiragana are used to write particles, the inflectable parts of words etc. Other than these 3 types of letters, romaji (Roman letters) are sometimes used for the convenience of foreigners. You may see romaji at stations and on sign-boards. Below are examples of all 4 types of scripts"

We have learnt the hiragana in our Japanese Basic 1 - Level 1.

And now we start with katakana as we start our Japanese Basic 1 - Level 2 lessons.

Wow... what a long way to go!