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Posting 中日韓 (C/J/K) Characters (Input Methods)


Occasionally, people have wondered how to post non-English text and, generally, how to write non-English text on a computer. To do this, you use what are called in “input methods” in the computerese.

Future posts will discuss how to install and use various input methods.

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Input Methods on Mac OS X


If you have Mac OS X, these inputs methods are preinstalled. Just check the input methods you want to use in the International preferences part of the System Preferences and check the “Show input menu in menu bar” option.
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Once that's been done, you will see a new menu allowing you to switch between input methods. All the input methods you've chosen will be shown, and the ones that are usable with the current application will be enabled.
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I highly recommend that even people who can only write English also enable the input menu since the Keyboard Viewer and Character Palette input methods are very useful even for just writing English. Ever wondered how to type a dash character (—, technically called an em dash) or the recommended apostrophe character (’, technically called a right single quote)? With the Keyboard Viewer, you can see how to type in all those common special characters. For less common characters, the character palette shows you all the characters available.

(You can also get to the character palette from the font panel and from Font Book, but the input menu is the most convenient method.)

Last edited by ccwf, 5/13/2005, 8:42 am


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Input Methods on Windows


With Windows, input methods can be downloaded from Microsoft's web site. Depending on your version of Windows and what software you are running, there are input methods and language packs for just Internet Explorer, for Microsoft Office, and for all applications. Additionally, I would recommend backing up before installing Microsoft's non-IE-only downloads since, unfortunately, Microsoft's installers sometimes will put your PC into a bad state. Once installed, you can select between input methods using the new item in the menubar.

classfloat-leftImage Unfortunately, installing Microsoft's language packs and input methods still doesn't get around the problem that a lot of Microsoft's software is pretty unfriendly to multilingual users. As discussed previously, Outlook very awkwardly handles email with multiple languages encoded in it. Copying and pasting C/J/K characters between IE and other apps generally works but sometimes doesn't. Windows Media Player often badly handles non-ASCII text (even if Windows Media Player is run on a Mac). IE works OK for posting to UTF-8 boards like this one but is vastly inferior to Mozilla/Netscape for posting to non-UTF-8 boards (which is almost all of them). Windows Explorer and Office apps sometimes refuse to open files with non-ASCII characters in them or their filenames. The problems go on and on.

Also, be warned that if you are using Microsoft's inputs methods with Chinese and Windows 95/98/NT, as I recall, you cannot use pinyin to type Traditional Chinese characters. Pinyin can only be used with Simplified for some brain-dead reason. This limitation does not exist with Windows 2000 and should not be a problem with Windows XP either. This limitation does not exist with most software.

If you are just interested in Chinese, a much simpler alternative is to install NJStar's software, which is very popular in the Chinese community. Installation is very simple as I recall. However, NJStar products are commercial and so are not free (but they're not that expensive).

Last edited by ccwf, 5/13/2005, 8:43 am


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Re: Input Methods on Windows


Thanks for the tutorial, ccwf. You write in a clear, complete, and understandable manner.

Everything always sounds so easy but I'm scared to death of downloading anything I don't absolutely have to from Microsoft (not to mention their killer license agreement). I have Windows 98/Mozilla/Netscape and I'll see if one of my techie friends will help me with this--or maybe I'll wait until I get a new computer later this year. (If I crash, I'm dead in the water for a while, so I'm not very brave in the risk department.)
 
In the meantime, please keep all the educational stuff coming that you can think of. One of the most useful tools I've come across is the "vB Codes Explained" document from tivocommunity. I'm sure there are many more like me out there who really appreciate (and need) this sort of info.
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ことえり—Japanese Input Methods in OS X


This first detailed discussion of an input method is for entering Japanese under OS X. I'm discussing this one first because it's pretty easy to use, even without special equipment (unlike the Korean input method, which is a lot easier to use with a Korean keyboard, and the Windows Traditional Chinese IME, which is alot easier to use with a ㄅㄆㄇㄈ keyboard), and because it's the one I know best.

Note: The various Japanese IMEs available under Windows work very similarly (but not exactly the same). The pinyin input methods for Chinese also work similarly.

Note: Like Microsoft, Apple's on-line help for their Japanese input methods are in Japanese; the help for their Chinese input methods are in Chinese; and so forth. If you are a native English speaker just learning one of the other languages, the help is therefore not very useful. Unfortunately, I don't know of any English translations of the full instructions for either Apple's or Microsoft's various input methods. I am not close to fluent in Japanese, so what's below is what I have puzzled out and is not comprehensive.

To start, the hiragana input method is the most useful input method for doing most Japanese typing. Select it from the input menu.
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Suppose you want to type in the disclaimer この物語フィクションです (kono monogatari fikushun desu—this story fiction is), which appears in the closing credits of many Japanese shows (especially final episodes).

After having selected hiragana mode, just type the romanized Japanese text without any spaces.†
konomonogatariFIKUSHUNdesu
Note that katakana are entered when in hiragana mode by typing capitals. Romanized Japanese text is spelled more-or-less the way it sounds. Ideally, the text should be entered in logical chunks, and over time, you will learn how big the chunks should be to help the Mac's kanji guesser.

† は should be entered as ha even where pronounced wa. を should be entered as wo even though pronounced o.

Now hit the space key, and the Mac will show you its guess of what you typed.
この 物語 フィクション です
In this case, the Mac has guessed correctly, so hit ENTER to accept the guess.

What if the correct kanji were not guessed? Suppose you want to type 殺生丸 (Sesshomaru, Inuyasha's half-brother's name). Start by typing in the romanized text again, in this case sesshoumaru. Why the extra u? You might have noticed that the o in Sesshomaru is drawn out when pronounced, and this is usually romanized in Japanese by repeating the vowel in hiragana or, for the case of a long o syllable, often by spelling it ou. Unfortunately, when Japanese names are written in normal English text, there is usually no special spelling for the extra long vowels.

Now, again, hit the spacebar to have the Mac guess at what you typed. The first time you do this, it might guess something like っしょ 埋る, which is wrong. Now, press the down-arrow, and the Mac will pop-up a panel showing you other possible choices for the first underlined group. Select 殺生, and the Mac will now re-guess the rest. If it's still not right, hit the right (or left) arrows to move to another incorrectly guessed underlined group, and again hit the down-arrow to get the pop-up list of suggested alternates. The guesses will get a little more accurate over time as the Mac learns what kanji you like to use.

Control-shift-N looks like it can be used to add to Mac's character dictionary, but I've never used this feature.

There are also a bunch of keyboard shortcuts for each input mode, some of which are listed in the input menu when in the mode in question. Option-Tab will cycle the current group between hiragana, katakana, half-width katakana, romaji, and full-width romaji. (Half-width katana is only available when using the katakana input method.) Like Windows, F6–F10 can be used to convert the group directly to hiragana, katana, … instead of cycling through the choices. Option-F1–F5 will do the same thing. Option-Shift-space changes the current Japanese input (sub)method. (Command-space toggles between the two most recently used major methods and is convenient for quickly flipping back and forth between entering English and Japanese.) The on-line help has a complete list of the keyboard shortcuts (again, it's in Japanese, but the table of shortcuts should be understandable with the assistance of the information here).

Finally, recent versions of OS X added the Japanese Kana Palette, which can be used to do point-and-click entry of half/full-width hiragana, katana, and romaji.

Last edited by ccwf, 5/13/2005, 8:40 am


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Japanese IMEs in Windows


Unless someone really needs it, I'm not going to write detailed instructions for writing Japanese under Windows like I did for the Mac. In part, it's because it's very similar to the Mac (so see my Mac instructions above); and, partly, it's because there are already a lot of web sites with such instructions (although, again, none with complete instructions in English that I know of).

Note: Microsoft's Japanese (and Chinese) IMEs function slightly differently depending on whether you are using an English or Japanese (or Chinese) version of Windows, what Windows version you are using, whether or not you have Office installed (and what version of Office), and even in what order Microsoft's software is installed. So, don't be surprised if typing Japanese on your Windows system works slightly differently than what you might find in someone's on-line instructions.

The main feature present in some of the Windows IMEs that's missing from the Mac's input methods is character recognition. Depending on the software and add-ons on your Windows system, you might have the option of hand-writing characters. (A graphics tablet is required in at least some Windows configurations for this option to work.)

Here's a thread from another board mostly discussing how to type Japanese in Windows. Again, there are many other pages with instructions (lots of university pages and others), so look around until you find instructions that work well for you.

Last edited by ccwf, 6/3/2004, 3:16 pm


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Hangul Input Method in OS X


[These are mostly notes to myself on typing Korean, hampered by my near total ignorance of the language.]

The GongjinCheong Romaja mode seems to be the easiest to use for typical U.S. users. Allows typing English-sounding romanized text (more English-sounding than the HNCRomaja mode, much like the difference between Wade-Giles and Pinyin). When converting romanized text seen on TV or the Internet to Hangul, trying slight spelling/romanization variations is often necessary since multiple romanization schemes are used (and not just the two listed in OS X). Show Keyboard Window will display a window showing the romanized text to jamo conversion for the current romanization mode selected.

Non-romanized input modes are also available (and are the default), which are easier to use with a special keyboard. Much like the Zhuyin [Fuhao] (注音符號, aka ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) input mode in OS X and Windows, keys useful for starting syllables are on the left of the keyboard, vowels to their right, and so forth. Show Keyboard Window will display a window showing the jamo keyboard layout.

To convert to Hanja (漢字), press option-return. Of course, not all Hangul has Hanja equivalents.

Last edited by ccwf, 6/17/2004, 1:50 pm


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Re: Posting 中日韓 (C/J/K) Characters (Input Methods)


ccwf, why is there no uniform translation of spelling between Chinese/Korean and English, while it seems this is not such a problem between Japanese and English?

For example, “Lee” and “Yi” are the same name (I’ve read). Is it because the literal Asian pronunciation is neither “L” nor “Y”, but a sound in between (or similar) that English speakers cannot produce (such as “f” and “th” being problematic for certain Asian language speakers)?

(Is this actually a problem between Japanese/English, too, but a standardization has been developed that supercedes the literal pronunciation?)




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Re: Posting 中日韓 (C/J/K) Characters (Input Methods)


From what my Chinese friends have told me, "Lee" in Chinese is pronouced just how it reads in English.

Korean, however, is a bit different. The Korean characters for "Lee" is "이". But in Korean, this isn't pronounced "Lee." The "ㅇ," or ieung (이응), indicates that this particular syllable begins with a vowel sound. In this case, the "ㅇ" is silent and serves no other purpose. But, if the "ㅇ" is at the end of a syllable, such as 성, it makes an "-ng" sound. The "ㅣ" in 이 produces an "ee" sound, and together make the syllable "Ee" or "Yi."

It's a bit confusing, but I hope my explanation helped you out nchristi.

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Re: Posting 中日韓 (C/J/K) Characters (Input Methods)


引用 (quote):

no rest wrote:

It's a bit confusing, but I hope my explanation helped you out nchristi.



Every little bit helps!

Language is truly both an art and a science, isn't it? There was a time when I volunteered to teach English literacy and this is when I first began to appreciate how complex and difficult language/communication can be. One young Chinese kid always had a good laugh on me when he would tirelessly try to teach me how to pronounce a particular Chinese sound that Westerners just can't seem to get. (Trying to figure out tongue placement in itself was a huge obstacle. emoticon )

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