thoughts on Japanese language

So I took this class in Japanese last night, not quite sure what to expect. The main problem is learning all the Japanese words for the kanji, because Chinese only has kanji but I look at the Japanese and only the Chinese words come to me. So in the process of re-learning THAT, I'm completely hopeless it seems with hirigana and katakana. They just don't seem to stay in my mind.

ANYWAY after this class, I was pondering what on earth could compell any country or culture to invent three different scripts for one spoken language?

I wonder if there are other languages that share this concept. It's truly fascinating to me, and makes me wish to explore and try to understand the Japanese culture even more.

Would anyone be able to find a similar analogy pertaining to languages? Let's see...I know that Hindustani can be represented with the Devnagari scripture as well as a more Arabic-like scripture...and Punjabi can also use two scriptures...Chinese spoken in the mainland China uses romanized Pin-yin as well as the simplified characters...

that's all I can think of. If anyone knows any other languages that incorporate a similar element...of using two different writing systems or more, to express the same vocal language..I'd be really intrigued to know of it!

Haha I know I'm such a linguist dork =P