/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I've been learning Japanese on Duolingo for about a month now. I am putting 30~60 minutes into it everyday and I've done around half of the modules.

I felt that it was a fun and easy-to-approach tool to help me get started. It's kinda shallow, I can tell that much, but it did help me get through the Kanas and learn basic structure and some kanji without any pain at all. I am going to look into other tools and resources now.

Question 1: I only want to learn Japanese in order to consume raw source material(games, manga, anime, VNs) and type in English. Do I absolutely must learn hand writing techniques or will I be fine just by knowing how to read and type?

Question 2: I live in Brazil and, as you might know, we've got a large Japanese community. It is possible for me to attend proper language classes ministered by proper Japanese speakers. Should I bother?