Why are the katakana important to learn?


I've just started, and everything says _learn your hiragana and katakana
first._

The hiragana, very clear. I guess you can say an awful lot of things in
Japanese with hiragana. But everything I've been reading all seems to say that
katakana are mostly used to form loanwords from other languages. I don't see
how a beginner would need to use loan words early on.

So what is the importance of the katakana? I have absolutely no doubt I'm
badly underestimating them.




> But everything I've been reading all seems to say that katakana are mostly
> used to form loanwords from other languages

Katakana are used for way more than just making loanwords:

  * It is used for reading classical Chinese (漢文).
  * It is used for names of people, places, countries, restaurants, etc.
  * It is used in science, for example biological names of plants and animals (オニヒトデ or エチゼンクラゲ).
  * It is used for expressing something different than the original meaning: クルマ vs. 車, etc.
  * It is used for company names.
  * It is used for expressing slang or when somebody with a foreign accent is speaking Japanese (often seen in Manga).
  * It is used for onomatopoeia, etc. 

This is just off the top of my head, but katakana has many more uses than just
foreign loan words.




> But everything I've been reading all seems to say that katakana are mostly
> used to form loanwords from other languages

Katakana are used for way more than just making loanwords:

  * It is used for reading classical Chinese (漢文).
  * It is used for names of people, places, countries, restaurants, etc.
  * It is used in science, for example biological names of plants and animals (オニヒトデ or エチゼンクラゲ).
  * It is used for expressing something different than the original meaning: クルマ vs. 車, etc.
  * It is used for company names.
  * It is used for expressing slang or when somebody with a foreign accent is speaking Japanese (often seen in Manga).
  * It is used for onomatopoeia, etc. 

This is just off the top of my head, but katakana has many more uses than just
foreign loan words.

