slate.com — According to the Washington Post, China already has as many as 16 million bloggers. How do you type Chinese characters on a keyboard?You use a piece of software called an "input method editor," which allows conventional-looking keyboards to produce the thousands of characters used in written Chinese.
Feb 22, 2006 View in Crawl 4
evilbadgerFeb 22, 2006
No wonder they come up with those cool text pictures. Sheesh
manchuckaFeb 22, 2006
@ bulletseedIs that how you think writing systems develop? Sheesh
satanstormFeb 22, 2006
How is this news?!?! I can imagine in Japan, some hick puts an article on his board that reads "What Does a Caucasian Keyboard Look Like?" If you want to know, just ask somebody - you know, like the Chinese guy you avoid having any social contact. Love how people tries their damnest to alien people.No digg.
jckosnowFeb 22, 2006
thing about it is, is that such a keyboard allows Chinese typing people to *cheat*: the keyboard/software suggests the right symbol. in the good old days, you just had to know Chinese, and that was that. why learn those 1000's of symbols if you don't have to? and many don't. so i'm told.
zopmazFeb 22, 2006
@Exclipt: Me too.Actualy I have always wondered what one has looked like... Thanks digg! +digg
manchuckaFeb 23, 2006
@ donsherioLook again. While Zhuyin has borrowed heavily from both Hiragana and Katakana, those are CLEARLY not Hiragana or Katakana. Look again, then look again again.
lilazndrumrboyFeb 23, 2006
lol........reminds me of the simpsons episode where homer goes into fortune cookie writing, and dictates to lisa who has like a 500 key typewriter with 1 cm square keys....homer: "You will embark on a great voyage........Lisa, are you getting all this?"lisa: *presses 2 keys tentatively* "......i....don't.....know....."lol.......yep, well i type in chinese sometimes for chinese school, and i use NJStar.......it uses chinese phoenetics..........but it all works out anyways...........
majordangerFeb 25, 2006
I worked at a small computer company in AZ way back in 1983 when PRC first started opening up. The keyboard we devised was a standard QWERTY keyboard. It required two or three (sometimes 4) keystrokes for each chinese character. With the custom keycaps it looked like somebody tagged it with Silly String.