USA 0 Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 How is a Japanese language keyboard laid out? I´ve never seen one and can only imagine it to be complex with all those characters.....? Link to post Share on other sites
sakebomb 0 Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 It does get a little difficult especially in summer! Actually I don\'t think it is that different!! Link to post Share on other sites
gamera 0 Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 Lmao sakebomb! USA-A lot people ask me the same, I guess probably they imagine a Japanese keyboard might have a lot more keys because of kanji. But I think it's almost the same with an English keyboard. As you see in the link sakebomb put, all hiragana which is one of our original letter are laid out together with English alphabet. When we type Japanese, we can choose which way - typing Japanese in English alphabet-#1 or typing Japanese in hiragana -#2 If you type in the #1 way, you need to type more keys because most Japanese letters except "N" have a vowel in it, so if you would like to type "Good morning " in Japanese, you need to type "ohayou gozaimasu" in Romanji mode hiragana way. Then it appears in hiragana. When you would like to type English alphabet, you need to choose Romanji mode English alphabet way. Then all what you type appear just as English letters as I am just typing. If you type #2 way, you can type less keys than #1 way but hiragana is laid out in 4 rows in a keyboard, it's pretty harder to type not seeing keys compared with #1 way. So, I don't recommend people to use this way only except when they would never type any English alphabet. I always type in Romanji mode (#1). In both ways (#1.#2),when you need to type kanji, you have to choose the correct one in a dialog box shows up after you hit enter key. Too complicated? Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 The space bar on a J-board is too bloody small!!!!!and there are other annoying differences like on 101 keyboard shift+7 you get '&', but on a J-board shift+6 you get '&' etc anyway qwerty keyboard layouts are so 1880's, I gave qwerty layout the ass long ago and changed to Dvorak layout, its much better. Link to post Share on other sites
me jane 0 Posted August 20, 2005 Share Posted August 20, 2005 Yeah, qwerty was designed to slow people down. When typewriters were first introduced the salesmen became too fast at typing and the keys would get jammed against one another not making for a very effective sales pitch. Hence qwerty was introduced to slow down the the max speed at which anyone could type. I looked into dvorak but still use qwerty cos that's what everyone uses and I don't want to have to change the settings everytime I get on a computer that's not mine. Qwerty should be banned (as should the imperial measurement system). Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 21, 2005 Share Posted August 21, 2005 Quote: Originally posted by snowglider: The space bar on a J-board is too bloody small!!!!!and there are other annoying differences like on 101 keyboard shift+7 you get '&', but on a J-board shift+6 you get '&' etc anyway qwerty keyboard layouts are so 1880's, I gave qwerty layout the ass long ago and changed to Dvorak layout, its much better. Glider: Besides the fact that you are a repetitive keyboard otaku-geek.... I agree with you about the J space bar. :-) USA: I have a laptop with a Japanese keyboard and, glider’s justified complaints aside, it is almost the same as yours. A Japanese keyboard actually helps you learn Japanese (or at least hiragana). For example, set your keyboard to be in hiragana mode and type ‘konichiwa’. Literally, type those roman characters and amazingly it turns into Hiragana... And even then into Kanji if you take it one step further. I now know at least 10 new Kanji as a result of the ease with which I can type/convert them rather than scribe them. Moreover, I can could bang out a Japanese (kana) email on my mobile phone in Japan way faster than I could type and English message. For the sake of a stupid example, ‘tomato’ would be much easier to write in hiragana than English. Sure , that is a silly example as it is an English word, but all the same it is so easy to type on hiragana. Quite often I prefer hiragana to the roman alphabet and most certainly to kanji. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 Even though we'd like to believe it, the story of QWERTY origins appears to be a myth. And, any superiority of the Dvorak layout has never been proved. The original tests were conducted by Mr. Dvorak himself, who owned the patent. Myth of QWERTY origins and Dvorak superiority Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 Quote: Originally posted by badmigraine: . And, any superiority of the Dvorak layout has never been proved. ] They say the proof is in the pudding my friend, my typing speed doubled since switching to Dvorak, thats good enough for me. Its a logical design, an ergonomic design that works better. The world fastest typist uses the layout, its physically impossible for Qwerty to be faster due to the extra distance covered my your moving fingers. http://sominfo.syr.edu/facstaff/dvorak/blackburn.html she swears by it. Personally I dont care about the origins of qwerty, its a dog of layout and the superiority of Dvorak is self evident for those who use it. Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 I can't get back into Japan time yet. zzzzz. Anyway, when I was in Switzerland I noticed a few odd things about their keyboards. The Z and Y seemed to be swapped round for some reason being the main one, and lots of the symbols seemed to be in different places as well. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 Hello Jetlag wimp Rach - I notice that as well when I am in Switzerland. It is hard to get used to. The French keyboard is also different. Glider - you never fail to crack me up. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 snowglider, it's a shame fast typing doesn't necessarily lend itself to elegant, grammatical writing don't you think...? Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 It would be nice if there were loads of people who'd come up on Dvorak, so one could compare average speed of either layout, apples-to-apples. Snowglider, it's great that you doubled your speed with the Dvorak keyboard. It was designed by a time-and-motion expert and seems to be "better" in that sense. I am interested in trying it but am not in a situation where I have time or freedom to retrain myself. How accomplished were you at QWERTY before you switched to Dvorak? If you go to an Internet cafe or to a hotel business center, can you still touch-type on QWERTY? Is it easy to switch back and forth, or do your fingers get confused? Do you have a Dvorak keyboard, or did you just re-map a QWERTY one? When this topic came up on Slashdot a couple of months ago, there were plenty of people supporting any one of a number of keyboard layouts (mostly QWERTY and Dvorak) based on their personal experience. But not many people doubled their speed, that is a dramatic difference. On some days, I can double my typing speed by sitting up straight and drinking a coffee beforehand . And it makes a difference what I am typing, too. Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 BPC, it's a mix of jetlag and the feeling of "oh well, I'm back" after such a great break. This salad is tasting nice though, I was getting a bit fed up of eating and drinking to be honest.... Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 Quote: Originally posted by rach: BPC, it's a mix of jetlag and the feeling of "oh well, I'm back" after such a great break. This salad is tasting nice though, I was getting a bit fed up of eating and drinking to be honest.... I know that feeling very well. On my return from Fiji I went from the water to the airport to a flight back to London. I walked off the plane in London in bare feet and still having the salt on my body from my last surf in Fiji. The feeling of "oh well, I'm back" was literally shattering. Glad you had a good Swiss holiday though, and I am equally happy to hear of the fine salad that you were eating last night. I too had a salad for dinner, but only because it was all I had left after I found that my Sainsbury's tuna (which I was going to sear and eat with Ponzu and Sesame Oil) was not fit for human consumption. The fish department in my local supermarkets leave a lot to be desired. Oh well. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 I can use the old keyboards as well i used to. It must be like speaking languages, if you are fluent in two languages you can easily switch beween them, (not that I am fluent in two languages!) If I have to use a qwerty keyboard, I can at the same speed I used too. I was forced to learn typing in high school and hated it, I took a touch typing night school course after Uni but never really typed that well. 4 years ago I discovered Dvorak and initially it was soo slow I nearly gave up but soon I picked up speed and was on my way. It works for me thats all I know. I used to type a pokey 30wpm these days I can get up 60ish but that needs a lot of spell checking ;-) If you can type well enough on qwerty then stick with it but if you suck on qwerty and hate typing Dvorak gets a thumb up. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 I think i see a familiar leaf there SB...weeds really can grow anywhere eh Link to post Share on other sites
USA 0 Posted August 28, 2005 Author Share Posted August 28, 2005 I know the feeling, after a holiday of eating and drinking you do get fed up of it to a certain extent. Link to post Share on other sites
Hokkaidough 4 Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 I have no idea what my wpm is. I suppose it will depend on how many big words I type. Never heard of this other keyboard layout thing. Link to post Share on other sites
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