As mentioned in Lesson 1, Katakana is mainly used for foreign words such as names and words that have been borrowed from other languages such as "compyu-ta-" (computer). The Japanese language does not have as many sounds as the English language so, when creating a name in Katakana for instance, the name must be sound out to the closest Japanese equivalent. Katakana, Hiragana, and Furigana (when Hiragana is written small next to a Kanji or Katakana character to show how that character is read) are collectively known as Kana.
