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Ok, for starters, the main way to differentiate between the three is this:

Katakana is very sharp and has sharp, line strokes and there are few strokes. Example: カタカナ。　ヨメマスカ？

Hiragana has few strokes but they are more loopy, and are not as sharp as katakana. Example: ひらがな。よめますか？

Kanji symbols are generally very complex with many strokes. Example: 漢字。友達。金曜日。However, you can have some kanji with few strokes similar to hiragana. Example (these are all kanji with few strokes): 人、水、目、日、口、可、下、上.

Apart from that, learn hiragana, learn katakana, and the left overs are kanji!

Your name would only be written in KATAKANA only. Katakana is a script used for borrowed words.

Examples

basketball - バスケットボールbasukettobooru

pen - ペンpen

tekisuto - テキストtekisuto

These are the main differentiation techniques!

Hope this helps

To me, katakana looks the simplest/blockiest; hiragana is a little bit more "swirly" or curvy-looking, and kanji looks the Chinese-iest/hardest/most complicated. Although I guess the best way to tell them apart is to just memorize how they look (at least the kana).

Here's a link with some charts and flash cards if that helps; we used this book in my Japanese 1 class: http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/self/self.en.html

wow, are you trying to break a record?

they usually teach you hiragana first,

and when you've mastered it (like forming words and sentences)

they teach you katakana (and the difference between hiragana)

and then after you can understand the meaning of the words

(in terms of characters)

they teach you the basic kanji

example

when writing the days of the week

Monday (getsu 月　meaning moon)

Tuesday (Ka 火　fire)

Wednesday (sui 水　water)

Thursday (moku 木　　wood)

Friday (kin 金 gold)

Saturday (dou 土　earth or sand, clay)

Sunday (nichi 日 sunlight, day)

every character has a different meaning behind it

Most people start learning how to speak the language first.

maybe you shouldnt take on too much too soon.

gambatte

wow - um the way i remembered it in japanese school was that hiragana letters are more Curvy. Like A - One cross and 'no.' But katakana is more angular. Like E - 90 deg angles.

Basic pointers:

Hiragana: Have curvy lines

Kata kana : have sharp corners and usually just straight or at an angle

Kanji: multiple complicated lines mixed together in (more strokes)

I can't exactly help you, but if you have a scanner, I'd recommend that you scan some letters you need justification in and add the picture to this question. That will give people a better idea of how to help you.

I can help you but I'll need a little more information. What is the assignment exactly? Do you have to write actual sentences or just differentiate between different characters?

hiragana

http://japanese.about.com/library/blhiragana.htm

katakana

http://japanese.about.com/blkatakana1.htm

other complicated characters are kanji.

good luck :)

Sounds hard. Wish i could help.