Hey guys, it's Yuta. So, typing in English is pretty easy. I have a keyboard ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I have an apple ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) So you type "A" and you get A And you type "B" And you get "B" But typing in Japanese is a little more complicated because of the Japanese writing system. First of all, we have three types of scripts. And if you want to know a little bit of history, it was because Japan didn't have a writing system for a very long time, but China did, so we started using Chinese letters a couple thousand years ago. And that was Kanji which literally means But there was a problem Chinese and Japanese are completely different languages. So it wasn't too convenient to write everything in Kanji. And that's why we created Hiragana and Katakana And Katakana and Hiragana are pretty complete which means you can write every single Japanese word in Katakana or Hiragana. So, why use Kanji? Well, I actually created a seperate video for that so if you are curious, please watch it. But anyway, today we use all three types of scripts. We use Kanji for words that are originally Chinese or words that sound like Chinese. And we use Hiragana or a mix of Hiragana and Kanji for words that are originally Japanese. And Katakana for other foreign words. So a typical Japanese sentence would look like this. So, how do you type in Japanese? Well, to type in Japanese, you don't actually need a special keyboard. For example, I just use my US keyboard. And do you remember that you can write everything in Hiragana? Well, typing in Japanese starts with writing everything in Hiragana. And each Hiragana can be represented by the English alphabet. For example, if you type "A" you get あ If you type ka, you get か And if you type sa, you get さ And when you type everything in Hiragana, you hit the space key and convert it to Kanji or Katakana. But very often, the first option is not exactly what you want so you keep hitting the space key until you find the right Kanji. And many Japanese words are exactly the same in Hiragana but are actually different in Kanji. So it's already kinda complicated to get the right Kanji. But things can get even more complicated because it's not always obvious how to divide a Japanese sentence. For example, this sentence can be divided in two ways and they have different meanings. And your computer doesn't know which one you want because it can't read your mind. So when it divides your sentence the wrong way, you will have to delete everything and try with smaller chunks. And you can actually fix it manually but I don't usually do it because it can get pretty messy quite easily. And sometimes you make a mistake because you are only human but then you will have to delete everything and start again. So it can get pretty frustrating when you just want to finish your work, go home and waste your time watching cat videos on YouTube. And sometimes, you just don't want to use Kanji for certain words. So you write everything in Hiragana, convert it to Kanji, and convert it back to Hiragana. I don't know about you but I find this pretty redundant. And sometimes, shortcut keys don't work with the Japanese input mode. For example, in my editor you can press "S" to split a clip but if you are using the Japanese input mode, it tries to enter Japanese Hiragana. So it doesn't work and the space key doesn't work either because it tries to enter the Japanese space. smh ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) So you need to switch back to the English input mode, edit your clips, and switch back to the Japanese input mode to put some Japanese subtitles. You may think it's a small thing but it's pretty annoying when you're trying to concentrate on your work. So that's how you type in Japanese but don't tell this to Japanese people because many of them don't know European languages enough to understand how mendokusai this is. Ignorance ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) is bliss ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) But things are actually better than it used to be because Google created pretty good typing software. Google IME. But in the '90s, most people were using Microsoft IME which can be described as a piece of ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) So it used to be even harder. But anyway, how about your language? Do you speak any language that is hard to type? Please let me know in the comments section. And if you want to learn Japanese after hearing this, I can send you some free lessons by email so click the link and join my group Japanese with Yuta. Also, you can support me on Patreon so click the link and go to my Patreon page. Alright, see you guys soon. Ciao ciao!
That seems far too frustrating to deal with day to day.
Back in HS I took Japanese for several years. I remember having to write papers in Japanese and definitely remember it being incredibly frustrating. I figured it was because I wasn't accustomed to it, but this makes it seem like it's just plain annoying trying to type in Japanese even if you are a native speaker. I make mistakes a LOT when typing (I'm 95% certain my left hand types faster than my right). These days I'm pretty sure I'd go office space on my keyboard if I had to delete an entire sentence every time I made a mistake.
why dont they just keep it hiragana?
This is actually creating a problem that most phones also use this system so people are forgetting characters. It means you no longer have to remember how to write characters any more unless you hand write something. You just need to be able to recognize the character and read it which is significantly easier. So for more complicated characters that you would rarely write like formal terms most people cant remember how to write them
You mean there's another thing I can use besides Microsoft IME??
I'm gonna go download google's right now. Microsoft IME is the worrrssttt
Yeah...
I sometimes think, why is everyone not switching to the most logical system if you have the world wide web and access to everything. Like everyone switching to the metric system, everyone using fork and knife and everyone using a european like language system. But on the other hand thats what is making the world so interesting, so I dont really know if I want everyone to use the same stuff.
I went to Japan back in 2010 and had the opportunity to stay with a host family. I remember my host father saying that I typed very quickly (I was typing in English). My typing speed is pretty average. Watching this has me curious what the average acceptable typing speed is in Japan?
I am now extremely grateful that all my Japanese papers in HS were handwritten...
Damn... after seeing this, my language (portuguese) seems pretty easy to write) XD