How to type in Chinese

My book about Chinese characters: www.foreverastudent.com/p/book...
A video explaining how to input Chinese characters on your computer and phone.
How to type in Chinese? What is pinyin? How to use it? I tried to answer these questions in the video.
Language Blog: www.foreverastudent.com

[@abdulrahmanabdulghani8833]

Hello where can I buy your book?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. Here: gumroad.com/l/rVnn Here is some information about it in case you're interested: www.foreverastudent.com/2020/12/some-thoughts-about-my-dear-book-about.html

[@PGD-zt2wp]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial ok

[@Oakshield2]

One more for the "random things that I'm curious about just before going to bed..." category

[@odanilooliveira]

Literally me right now hahah

[@beachchaos1863]

LMAOOO

[@cranberry4860]

glad I'm not alone. ; )

[@enifash6030]

Here 11months after!!😆

[@DollMara]

ACCURATE

[@spaveevo]

Ive never thought about this until 5 mins ago. Amazing what you can learn in the span of 2 mins in the modern world.

[@kameldziri4714]

Just like you. I've just discovered the answer for the question that was in my mind for more than a decade, because I could never imagine the solution. They have thousands of symbols while a kb is limited to less than 100 letters (that we can touch). Thank you.

[@straenverkehrgeheimpolizei3083]

I'm a native mandarin speaker, and I think your pronunciation is brilliant :)

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Thank you:)

[@taurohkea2169]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial I don't know Chinese but I think the same

[@aleksitjvladica.]

Ја знам по малко и мислим исто.

[@craftah]

@@aleksitjvladica. sigurno te razumiju...

[@aleksitjvladica.]

@@craftah English please.

[@havootu]

This thought just popped into my head a few minutes ago like how do Chinese people use characters.... and you answer that for me thank you.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

:) Internet is crazy.

[@amedeetje]

isn't it weird, they have their own language with their own characters which are completely different to the alphabet that the majority of the people use yet they need to learn and use that latter roman alphabet if they want to be able to type in their own language. it just blows my mind. the Chinese language seems to be difficult enough in itself, but in addition to the many different difficult characters and difficult pronunciations (with the tones as well) they have to also learn how to transform each of them into a completely different alphabet in order to be able to type in their own language!! thanks for the clear explanation though, I've always wondered!

[@ninetailsfirefox]

My Chinese friends usually send voice recording rather than typing text on the phone.

[@bicyclerush]

Lee Thomas 我们这里叫：讯飞语音输入法(｡◝‿◜｡)

[@FrancisKNgigi]

True.. Has a friend who does that as well

[@user-ck1kx5ie6t]

Most people I know who send voice instead of type are old people who don't know pinyin.

[@nehcooahnait7827]

@@bicyclerush people actually use that shit?

[@bicyclerush]

@@nehcooahnait7827 Yeah， it is very common here .Just like your voicemail message

[@brian8502]

Some people on phone like my parents just draw them out

[@yadongli2775]

well, as a Chinese, id like to explain a little bit, we have many ways to type Chinese. Pinyin is the most popular method now, but not always. and it used not to be the fastest way to type Chinese, but years ago keyboard apps can detect similar pinyin precisely like auto correction, have memories of user, cloud, and short pinyin most importantly. You only need to type the first letter like you said cellphone, shouji, here SJ is enough actually. and for complex and rare words 'shouji', shj, shouj is enough. and for even more rare words we will try to type a much longer sentences(or four characters idioms) but only typing the first letter of pinyin of each word, then delete needless ones. it might seem hard. but for Chinese natives its definitely not. and poetries and idioms are all inserted in the cloud of keyboard. so its easy to use actually. and al last, i have to say typing english is much faster than chinese. but as you said before chinese sentences are shorter, so actually it doesn't really matter to common people about the speed.

[@katevalentine8550]

Welcome back ! It's very interesting what you post. Happy new year ! LA MULTI ANI( in romanian) from a romanian fan 😘

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Kate Valentine Thank you very much Kate:) Happy New Year.

[@user-hs8bf3ox4z]

Always a pleasure to watch your videos. Happy new year from France !

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Mathilde Ofelia Thank you very much:) Happy New Year.

[@snowpawzvideos]

Same goes for Japanese; Romaji.

[@carters1209]

日本語？あなたはそれを話す！ Japanese is so much easier to learn than chinese!

[@Zeklore]

Meriaxe Has A Cookie Not grammar wise

[@thekingofmoney2000]

Zeklore They are both equally difficult, just in different ways.

[@goranito]

thekingofmoney2000 exactly

[@arctic_line]

They both have dumb amounts of counters. But that conjugation system. That's the kind of thing that romance languages and German are scared of.

[@kameldziri4714]

An other question: How to memorise all the linked symbols to just one keybord letter?

[@lawrencepeng9046]

Actually, it is really simple and easy when we typing Chinese. For instance, when we wanna say "what can I say" and in Chinese Pinyin it is "wo neng shuo shen me" and we can just typing "wnssm". It is faster than typing in English in many times.

[@orvillets8818]

深空审判者 you mean... I can type lol brb asap btw nvm wft in English too right?

[@lawrencepeng9046]

@@orvillets8818 There is a bit difference. When you typing LOL, other guys will see the LOL. If they don't know what lol stand for, they won't get what you mean. But when you typing “wnssm”, the chinese input method can understand what you mean and automatically change it to chinese character.

[@lawrencepeng9046]

@@orvillets8818 but chinese also have some word like “lol wtf & ezi”. For example, “awsl”. It means “Oh! I'm die”. But it doesn't mean that someone die in the video game. It means that someone see some really pretty & lovely girl in cartoon, manga or anime. But if you wonder why? That is a long story.

[@agme8045]

深空审判者 wow it actually worked xd

[@signs80]

@@lawrencepeng9046 How does the computer know that wnssm means that and not something else? Does it just know what is most likely?

[@alchemist_one]

I've only met foreigners using that input method you showed. In mainland China, it's simplified pinyin, in Taiwan nearly everyone uses zhuyin (the traditional Mandarin phonetic symbols like ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) and in Hong Kong it's a hodgepodge including structure based systems like Cangjie.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Mark Wilbur I guess it's the easiest input method to learn for westerners, that's why.

[@alchemist_one]

+Vladimir Skultety Of course that depends on whether you already know pinyin or zhuyin or neither. What's really time consuming is learning to hear the sounds distinctly. I got started quickly but actually took longer to fully get pinyin because of the i vs y and especially the u vs ü distinctions. That said, for someone who knows pinyin or zhuyin well, learning the other takes less than a day. Learning Cangjie is much harder, but comes with some advantages in typing speed and ability to remember how to write characters by hand.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Mark Wilbur Pinyin is ver confusing on a lot of levels. Like you said, sometimes you use two different Roman letters to represent the same sound and sometimes two different sounds are represented by the same one Roman letter. Sounds that are written in a different way, but represent the same sound: Wo, Shuo, Po - rhyme with 我 (Wo) Dui, Hui, Wei, Shei - rhyme with 累 (Lei) Wen, Dun, Shun - rhyme with 文 (Wen) Same letter used to represent a different sound: Ci, Shi - rhyme with 日 (Ri) VS Bi, Li - rhyme with 以 (Yi) Xun, Jun - rhyme with 孕 (Yun) VS Shun, Dun - rhyme with 文 (Wen) Shu, Chu, Zhu - rhyme with 五 (Wu) VS Xu, Qu, Ju - rhyme with 於 (Yu)

[@alchemist_one]

+Vladimir Skultety And in zhuyin, the endings of these are consistent: Wo, Shuo, Po ㄨㄛ，ㄕㄨㄛ，ㄆㄛ Dui, Hui, Wei, Shei ㄉㄨㄟ，ㄏㄨㄟ，ㄨㄟ，ㄕㄟ Wen, Dun, Shun ㄨㄣ，ㄉㄨㄣ，ㄕㄨㄣ Same letter used to represent a different sound: Ci, Shi ㄘ，ㄕ Bi, Li ㄅㄧ，ㄌㄧ Xun, Jun ㄒㄩㄣ，ㄐㄩㄣ VS Shun , Dun ㄕㄨㄣ, ㄉㄨㄣ Shu, Chu, Zhu ㄕㄨ，ㄔㄨ，ㄓㄨ VS Xu, Qu, Ju ㄒㄩ，ㄑㄩ，ㄐㄩ I really don't think anything about zhuyin is harder than pinyin, except learning the symbols themselves, but for anyone who intends to learn even a few characters, an alphabet (or syllabary to be precise) is trivial!

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Mark Wilbur I wrote an entire article about this a few years ago exactly because I noticed that Zhuyin was much more consistent than Pinyin. I guess, Pinyin is still the easier way out if you learn to deal with its flaws.

[@kameldziri4714]

I was asking myself how do chinese type using a keyboard? That's because I know they have a huge number of different symols but the kb letters are limited. Now I get the answer for this issue. Thank you.

[@zhaochongyao9997]

There are several efficient ways to type Chinese. When you get very familiar with characters radicals, you will able to use radicals input method without getting a list with numbers of characters with the same pronunciation then choose one from it. You can just get the character you want instantly and directly. Like the character ’电’, which means ‘electricity’, you can input it to your computer very quickly with just three key ’jnv’. J N V represent different Chinese characters radicals respectively. Various radicals write in different orders form the Chinese characters, therefore, that if you know the handwriting of a character, you know how to type it. From my experience, type a phrase with the same meaning, Chinese take less time.

[@zhaochongyao9997]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJDaXoRsnamtgpo Check out

[@aliceduanra7539]

Thanks I was curious about this for a while

[@chengyanslc]

I would actually recommend newer pinyin software like Sogou Pinyin or Google Pinyin. You just type in the pinyin for the whole sentence and the AI(which is getting trained at all time throughout the Cloud) would usually select the right sentence for you.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Interesting. I'll read about this.

[@TheMochan555]

Keyword there is "usually" when typing common phrases it works but when you're trying to express something less common it will make mistakes and this makes it a much less efficient system overall than the simplicity of a phonetic language.

[@phoenixmichael2732]

I can type in Chinese press more to be impressed In Chinese 💀

[@Bloooooooooopp]

hahahaha

[@fanninyiro102]

Your videos are really inspiring and helpful. I am amazed by your diligence and endurance. Good luck for further learning! Egyébként nagyon szépen beszélsz magyarul! :)

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Fanni Nyiro nagyon szepen koszonom:)

[@ianshaw482]

Pedig azt mondtad, hogy slovak vagy.

[@user-mg4pz1lh1z]

okay thank you but how do you use it when you have a chinese keyboard with chinese characters? pls I need help :(

[@dllm954]

In my way I use Cangjie. For example if I want to type 我, I just type 竹手戈 or HQI on keyboard

[@naakatube]

Hi Vladimir can you make a video on traditional vs modern Chinese characters? Thanks!

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hi Nicola. Maybe. It's a good topic.

[@BlaXo11]

diky za super videa a prajem ti stastny novy rok!! ;)

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+BlaXo11 Dakujem pekne. Aj tebe:)

[@samuelpimenta1942]

非常感谢你!

[@WSNOBLE.UNDERDOGG]

But what if it’s not a computer no shortcuts or do I have to learn to read it

[@0o0jf0o0]

hey vladimir, have you ever looked into zhuyin? are there any advantages over pinyin in your opinion?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

I have a little bit. I don't know it too well but I think it's a more suitable system for Mandarin. I wrote a short article about why pinyin is not so good. Check it out if you like: www.foreverastudent.com/2013/06/pinyin-confusions.html?m=0

[@zaqc5615]

+Vladimir Skultety personally ,i think pinyin is actually very scientifically .the reason you have Doubt about it is because you don't know the rules about pinyin. . here is a link for your question, this should explain pretty well. www.zhihu.com/question/23148320 see the answer with over 60 agreements.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

ZaQ C Hello. The fact that pinyin has scientific backing is not useful for modern users. Pinyin is confusing and scientific backing is not important in this case.

[@alecrosewell6959]

+Vladimir Skultety I have no idea how to use zhuyin as I have only learn pinyin... is there any books on zhuyin specifically?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Alex Matthew I'm pretty sure there must be explanations on how to use it online.

[@katev4791]

Happy New Year !!! Vladimir !!! :-D

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Michelle T Thank you Michelle. Happy New Year to you too:)

[@GiantPetRat]

Hi, I have a question: to access the pinyin input, does one have to download an app, or is the ability already on your phone when you go to settings? For whatever reason, on my Android it seems to only allow me to use one keyboard at a time, which is frustrating. Thank you in advance!

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hi. I don't know to be honest. I have an iPhone and I just choose which input systems I want to use and it works.

[@SllabYmKcus.]

Thx for the video it works!!

[@GatCat]

Selecting from the list, this doesn’t slow things dramatically?

[@felicitatuccio6941]

i study chinese at school ! i love chinese

[@nayahsblog8450]

It's felicity hi

[@wz4227]

It's felicity 我也是

[@wz4227]

Andonio C.C 注音符号

[@wz4227]

Andonio C.C 你呢？

[@wz4227]

Andonio C.C 哦好

[@mikethegamedev]

For PC u can use Shift + Alt to change language

[@AmrAliElneinaei]

you are amazing Vladimir very nice idea , really realy thank you

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Amr Ali Thank you Amr.

[@AmrAliElneinaei]

+Vladimir спасибо тебе за помощь это был очень приятно я думал что китайский язык очень трудный но вот ты отдал нам ....... you motivated me a lot, because the Chinese a little bit alien for me especially my native language is Arabic but this video gives message for any one how want to learn he will do it Thanks Vladimir

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Amr Ali I'm glad you liked the video:)

[@user-kc7ek2yh9l]

Спасибо за интересные видео! Говорить на 19 языках - просто потрясающе!!! Я тоже изучала китайский язык, заканчиваю магистратуру на китайском, поэтому знаю, как не просто учится китайский. Пишу специально на русском, потому что видела в Ваших комментариях, что Вам нравится русский язык, спасибо :)!

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+hjdldoi jlidis С удовольствием:) Да, русский мне очень нравится и да китайский совсем не просто учится. Всего доброго:)

[@5Gazto]

Thanks Vlad. I only know how to type romaji in Japanese.

[@EppingForest304]

Good information 👍

[@iOnline72]

So all Chinese have to learn Roman alphabet in order to type their own language?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

There are other input systems, but I think this is the most common one nowadays.

[@iOnline72]

Vladimir Skultety , although difficult, that does give the Chinese kind of an advantage I guess, being able to read Western characters. Thanks for the info🙂👍

[@lennonsong8832]

You are correct, I think all people on this planet has to learn the roman alphabet while using a computer.

[@medaltop1736]

I am a Chinese.Indeed that these are many ways to input Chinese,like writing then phone recognize it , you choose from one .others like bihua ,it divide Chinese into different parts ,you shoud remember them.About Pingying, because you can not know the pronouciation from one Chinese character.So in China ,We learn Chinese Pingying first ,it likes you use International Phonetic Alphabet to make you know the pronouciation .

[@leochen4671]

It actually faster to type Chinese than English, 中文输入快于英文(zw sr ky yw). I only need to type 8 letters for the same sentence in Chinese。

[@cinnamonpop890]

I’m just learning Chinese on google translate google is teaching me how to say words in Chinese and Spanish it’s fun to speak languages:)

[@carlynfry]

thanks for making this video! a couple questions- forgive my ignorance, but if you had to type it in western words, wouldn't it just be easier to keep it that way & not change it to the chinese characters? also, is this very hard for older people as they have to learn wester characters to use? thank you :)

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. Older people use a different system. I've seen special bluetooth devices with touch screens where you can write characters with your finger just as if it was a pen. As for just writing Chinese with Latin letters, there are some websites for learners that are written like that actually, but for native speakers think it would be impossible at this point. You would need to know how the Chinese language works to understand why, but just to name one of the problems: the syllable 'shi' for instance can be any one of the following characters: 是市時石式十事使食史試世室師士視施失勢氏濕屍示釋飾匙誓詩適獅始 They all have a different meaning. If you only write 'shi' you don't know which one it is. It's more complex than that and this is only one random example to prove a point and there are many other reasons why characters work much better for Chinese than Latin letters and some reasons why Latin letters would be better, but but in short, Chinese characters are quite suitable for the Chinese language I think.

[@carlynfry]

ah that makes complete sense. thanks for taking the time to answer my questions

[@ianshaw482]

if you know Chinese pretty well, the if you type "shi" in pinjyin you can choose the desired character from the ,long list that appears.

[@DinahAO]

im guessing this means that Chinese people need to know the English alphabet in order to use a computer? (or any other language they know that has an alphabet)

[@user-tg1kt3pm8r]

Most children are taught pinyin before characters so it isn't that big an obstacle

[@RealeaD]

Hello. Thank you for your videos. ONE thing: suddenly hanzi options are not appearing when I type pinyin on MS word. What should I do? Did I accidentally hit some key combination? Deleted and reinstalled Chinese keyboard, but no difference.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hi. I don't know actually. I don't use MS Word/PC.

[@RealeaD]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial Thanks for the reply

[@woonha4481]

Have you tried Taiwanese ㄅㄆㄇㄈ 注音符號？I wonder what you think of its efficiency compared to Chinese 拼音。

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

I'm vaguely familiar with it, but never used it to type anything so I don't know to be honest. When I was a student, I read one book in Chinese that had also Zhuyin in it, but that' about it:)

[@ianshaw482]

I was taught pomofo once by a good Chinese teacher, which enables you to read a character (but you must know the tones!) Unfortunately I forgot it all.

[@user-md7zm3xq6e]

Thank you!

[@user-ef7mt4ge8i]

how is that your chinese characters are traditional not simplify? I have a PC and mv PC only allows me to type chinese simplify if I choose 拼音 input method. As you can see when I type 手机。

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

You have to change your input settings.

[@akatsuki_kowari5228]

I literally changed my keyboard into chinese it’s so weird! I have to draw the characters and symbols that I want and it appears by itself on the top or just appears in the text like 唔該你嘅意思係咪話你冇乜點都要返了。 No clue what I just typed in

[@hiuminglo3040]

It’s just some gibberish in Chinese(Cantonese). The input logic might be the same as what’ve been shown in the video, which is Chinese(Mandarin) depends on input methods you use.

[@Antphoneigh]

if you already learnt 20,000+ chinese characters, another 26 roman characters for pinyin would be nothing to sneeze at.

[@markgonzalez5032]

Wow, Chinese people are very skilled linguists in that they memorize all of their characters, they even know about the Latin alphabet and how decrypt it to their form of pronunciation and writing 😮

[@moboholland6464]

How did you switch your input on your computer like that? 1:19

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

On Mac it's cmd+space on PC I think it's alt+tab. You have to add the language input somewhere in your settings first though.

[@moboholland6464]

yeah i figured it out, thank you though!

[@vamst9]

I use Array input method. A Windows built-in input method.

[@Hobbgobb808]

Doesn't Pinyin require accent/tone marks? I don't understand how the chinese characters are directly translated without the proper accent/tone marks in place. Or is it that the accent/tone marks are only used for pronunciation purposes?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

If you don't specify the tone, the input system will show you all characters associated with the syllable you put in, regardless of the tone. Example: If you just write 'wo' you will get: 我喔窩握臥 etc.

[@sallylauper8222]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial How do you specify the tone? You can't do it by just typing in the number, 'cuz it interprets the number as your character selection.

[@matahari5273]

nice teaching video im taiwanese~

[@Avamazingxx21]

not learning chinese nor do i plan to (anytime soon, at least), but it’s eh it’s 3am why not learn about this lmao

[@julbombning4204]

Do you recommend first learning to read in Pinyin and later hanzi?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. You mean like read entire articles in pinyin or just learn the pinyin as a system?

[@julbombning4204]

Vladimir Skultety Exactly, articles and such, Just like mastering it to read and write in it like any other language

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

@@julbombning4204 I never tried it, but learning characters as a beginner or intermediate student wasn't a good idea in my experience. Or better yet, to learn Chinese through characters is a mistake in my opinion.

[@julbombning4204]

Vladimir Skultety Okey Thanks man

[@MikeJones-gy2fh]

Hello, thanks for the video. Do you know is there a way to type in Chinese with an English keyboard without Roman letters appearing? Thanks!

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hi. Not sure if I understand your question well. You mean you just don't want Roman letters to appear on the screen as you type but do want to use Roman letters as input?

[@MikeJones-gy2fh]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial Hi thanks for getting back to me, yes, if that was possible, no roman characters. I know it sounds strange, but its for recording purposes where the instructor would be talking and typing in Chinese (but really using an English keyboard)

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

I see. I'm not sure. I am using a Mac and as far as I can tell, if you use the Pinyin input system (Roman letters), they will appear on the screen as you type. I vaguely remember that it wasn't the case on a PC, but I might be wrong.

[@MikeJones-gy2fh]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial Great, thanks for your help! :)

[@tedtolliver572]

@@MikeJones-gy2fh You can try Cangjie, which is typed with a QWERTY keyboard. Usually, the Roman letters won't appear when you type.

[@MrParlam]

Чувак! А на каком языке китайский изучать легче, на рсском или английском? Например когда я учил учил немецкий ерез русский, т.к. через англ сложнее было (не потому что яплохо им владею)

[@Jonathan-bu7iv]

the drawing makes sense. Using the roman is kinda disappointing though haha. I kinda thought they had some elaborate system of common parts of the symbols, so you'd glue them together to create the correct word.

[@user-fh5wu1me1d]

you can learn about Wubi --> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_method

[@danakospanova52]

我家有五口人 Omg, thanks a lot I didn't know that there two modes for this keyboard (with default being 214 keys so it was hard🙉) Thank a lot :)))

[@anteaterhands]

So you basically have to learn English characters to type in Chinese... that sounds hard

[@HarryMcKenzieTV]

the "shou ji" doesn't work for me. it will directly convert the first character and look like this "丧ou" when i type shou. What am i missing? by the way, im using the input method pinyin on xubuntu. Using IBus Pinyin 1.5.0

[@HarryMcKenzieTV]

ah probably pinyin on IBus is a bad input method. ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2016/07/2-best-chinese-pinyin-im-ubuntu-16-04/

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. I think the problem is the way iBus Pinyin works. It probably picks up some keys or key combinations as 'select character'. I'm only guessing but, it's maybe even the 'h' key (or that and another key) since when you type 'sh' in 'shou' and end up having "丧ou", 丧 is written as "sang", so when you press "s" (first character in "shou") a list of characters appear that start with an "s", 丧 is probably the first one on that list and then as you go on to type h-o-u, your input system, since the "h" or "h" + something is the way you choose a character from a list, 丧 is chosen as it is the first character that appears on that list. It's only a guess, but I would read about IBus Pinyin 1.5.0 keyboard shortcuts. I love Linux, but this is why iOS will win for me anytime. It is unbelievably frustrating that you have to set up even the smallest of things all the time. Hope it helps.

[@HarryMcKenzieTV]

thank you for your prompt response! :) yeah you're right, i read some reviews and they prefer the fcitx framework over the Ibus. il try to switch to fcitx. it's a shame coz ibus works good with my japanese input xd

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Good luck with your choice!:)

[@flyingchimp12]

how much longer does this take compared to english?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

It takes shorter on average. Chinese* is a very information-dense language. Compare the same text written in Chinese and in English and the Chinese one will be shorter by a lot most of the time. Logically, on average, when you type it takes you less time to type the same sentence or word in Chinese than in English. I did a short study about this years ago: www.foreverastudent.com/2012/01/efficiency-of-chinese-characters.html *referring to Mandarin Chinese, but this is probably true of all Chinese languages.

[@mauriciosuarez5129]

I have never been able to type these characters " 旅游" or "女儿"... like the ones that have the two little dots, you know? They never show up in the list when I type "nu" or "lu". Please help me!

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

女 = nv 旅 = lv

[@miekevanbloemwijk5031]

In don't get to choose if I press the letter t it turns into a sign and its not even the right sign

[@VulcanOnWheels]

I kept hearing you say T H whenever you typed "ta". Also, if I understand this right, then the Chinese do need to know our alphabet in order to type...? Or, is there another way?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello, the 'tha' reading of 'ta' is a complicated thing to explain in this short comment. Read about how pinyin works if you like (and haven't already). When using this system, Chinese need to learn the Latin alphabet, but there are other systems, where they don't.

[@rosiey4710]

Bert Visscher I guess you are talking about pinyin? It’s a system showing the character’s’ pronunciation in Roman letters. Taiwan uses zhuyin which is another system has the same function but not using Roman letters. We learn pinyin or zhuyin (depends where you’re from) in kindergarten or 1st grade before we learn any characters, and we would then use this system to learn characters. So basically pinyin/zhuyin is like an assistant of Chinese language and characters. I think using it for typing is like a thing that comes naturally. Also, I guess pinyin is not entirely based on English alphabet, cuz we pronounce the pinyin letters differently and the system works differently haha! I remember learning pinyin following this order: aoe iuü bpmf dtnl zcs zh ch sh jqx wy.. and other compound vowels are treated like independent units like “ao”/“üe”/“ie”.. so technically it is not the abcdefg alphabet haha!

[@dezotfn123]

Interesting!

[@TheSkum]

super interesting

[@kabali1788]

How do you switch input method ?

[@TSChina1996]

on mac: you go to system preference => keyboard => input source => + => and then chose from the list, you might want to set a shortcut to switch between different input methods; on ios device: go to settings => general => keyboard => keyboards => add new keyboard, tap or hold the earth sign on the lower left corner to switch input methods (the one you use to get the emoji keyboard); on Windows 10: you go yo setting => time & language => add Chinese as a second language => then click "中文(中国)“ => add a keyboard => choose Microsoft Pinyin, the default shortcut to switch is Windows + Space on Windows 10/8 and Ctrl + Shift on Windows 7 or earlier Windows version

[@Ranze]

喔喔 我正在學我的母語........... 這影片真是有幫助呢 :P

[@Ranze]

爛爛的寫字:((

[@kwaaht4564]

Ranze what?

[@chikush3717]

Isabella Demetriou i think she/he tried if someone answer her/him xD

[@dllm954]

正常拼音很容易學的哦不是嗎？

[@egygat]

Jó videó! És Boldog Új Évet! :)

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

+Eperlekvár #sweg Köszönöm szépen. Boldog új évet neked is:)

[@jonyg6620]

So what if you choose the wrong symbol? Because they all read the same in roman. How do they know that they were reading the right one?

[@user-ou5up4ue5y]

Context based predictive algorithm

[@aw_tysm5600]

I had wondered this because I knew that there were thousands of symbols. this is very intereasting, thanks

[@simonrandomguy5945]

Otázka: Je rozdíl mezi výslovností j na Taiwanu a v Číně (Peking)? Příjde mi, že J v Pekingu má nádech "dz", ale nevím, jestli to není jenom v hlavě. Díky. :D

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Konkretne medzi Pekingom a Taiwanom obrovsky. V Pekingu sa zh, ch, sh, r vyslovuju hrozne retroflexne a v jazyku je pritomna silna erizacia. Na Taiwane sa zh, ch, sh vyslovuje ako z, c, s. Ak vsak niekto z Pekingu a TW hovori spisovne, vyslovnosti su velmi podobne, rozdiel je skor v niektorych tonoch.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Jaj vyslovnost 'j'. Neviem ked mam pravdu povedat.

[@simonrandomguy5945]

+Vladimir Skultety toho jsem si uz vsiml, ale mam na mysli konkretne hlasku j v jintian shouji deng deng. :)

[@Denis-mg1wj]

That's horrible imagine how long it would take to write or translate a book or an school report ... can't they invent something simpler ?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

It's actually not that bad. Someone used to the system can maybe type just as fast if not faster an average westerner can type in their language. It's a bit complex to explain in one comment, but Chinese characters are more suitable than an alphabetical script for the Chinese language.

[@cleopatrayang3945]

sometimes typing in chinese is really fast. for instance, if i want to type " 我今天早上要去上班“, wo jin tian zao shang yao qu shang ban, which means "this morning i need to go to work", I only need to type "wjtzsyqsb", and the input software will know the whole sentence I am trying to input. This is insanely intelligent and high efficient

[@truezyf]

in fact, u can type "JTTQHH" for 今天天气很好 (today weather is good), much faster than english input.

[@PikaPika-Tassie]

Denis Milošević typing Chinese is way faster than English. for European Union, just type om，no need to type Ou Meng which is for European Union.

[@tianhaowang5012]

once you learn it, it could be very efficient. u can just type "JTTQHH" for today's weather is very good

[@megumim6795]

thanks!

[@cythism8106]

I thought you would type radicals and you would press a button to combine them. That would be much more convenient.

[@bs8550]

Is this how Chinese normally type or it’s just one way of typing?

[@taolin4569]

The way this video showed is a pronounciation-based input method, which is used by most Chinese people. But there also exists another group of input methods, such as “Wubi”, “Zhengma” and “Cangjie”. All of them are solely based on the shape of the words, so they can enable one to type a character without knowing the pronounciation.

[@Bloooooooooopp]

@@taolin4569 thanks. i was wondering too. gonna look into that

[@taolin4569]

@@BlooooooooooppI am glad to know this information is helpful to you. Good luck for your further exploration.

[@tls-mz1fu]

I do the same in japenese, excepf in the japenese alphabets on mobile and then find the kanji

[@alecrosewell6959]

but if youre handwriting... wouldnt that mean you need to know the strokes that make up the word?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. Yes, of course.

[@ianshaw482]

Once you understand the logic behind it, you can write the strokes in the proper order even if you don't know what the character means.

[@purplehaze7572]

역시 한국어 최고. 세종대왕님 감사합니다.

[@xixiesme4277]

PurpleHaze Oh yes!You are the best!Disgusting...

[@sextuplemillionsellersfan7961]

Just because Mandarin is hard and complicated doesn’t mean one is inferior to the other. Your emperor created Korean is to let the illiterate learn to read more easily because apparently Mandarin is hard

[@yef66]

可以手写输入或笔画输入的😅 笔画输入法： 一 丨丿丶乛 只要5个笔画就可以了👍😆😄 不需要26个字母，5个按钮🔘就可以了😌

[@luwin2184]

what app?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

It's not an app. Just the Chinese keyboard input on a Mac or iPhone.

[@user-nr7rs3mq3m]

I really recommend typing Chinese with structure-based input method like 五笔Wubi or 仓颉Cangji rather than phonetic-based method like Pinyin. Certainly it is more difficult in the beginning to remember different output set to each key (just like you start learning Chinese characters), But what I really mean is that it gives you a more Chinese way of thinking as well as analysing these characters: structure-based rather than syllable-based, writing the shape rather than the pronunciation. And by using these methods, we can easily avoid forgetting the writing of the characters: which makes Chinese language special from other modern languages. (except Japanese kanji, Korean hanja and Vietnamese Chữ Nôm which are also an adaption of Chinese characters into their languages), likewise typing structures can also correct your Chinese writing and the order of stokes: Myself benefited a lot in such sense. Some exemples：（pinyin--wubi）/English 木－mu－木 /wood 林－lin－木、木 /woods, forest 森－sen－木、木、木 /forest 屋－wu－尸、一、厶、土 /house 曲-qu－冂、卄、一 /curbed, a piece of song 规-gui-二、人、冂、儿 /rule, settlement Incredibly fascinating, isn’t it? 😂 I found a very precise video on KZbin : kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJDaXoRsnamtgpo

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. Thank you for your opinion. I know your intention was good, but I think you as a native speaker (I assume you are a native speaker) cannot understand what challenges we, as foreigners, face when learning Chinese and I don't agree with your suggestion. The way foreigners learn Chinese right now is very ineffective and a great part of the problem is that we are forced to learn characters from day one. Using Wubi or Cangji would absolutely kill the last 'breathing space' we as students have. The majority of native speakers of Chinese themselves use syllable based input methods (Pinyin or Zhuyin), I don't see a reason why us foreigners who have trouble just speaking and reading should make things even more difficult for us when typing too. If you want to practice character structure then yes, you can use the Wubi system as a practice tool, but for daily purposes it is very ineffective and counterproductive. And then.. if you want to practice character structure, there are other ways of doing it like... practice handwriting? Moreover, I actually cannot agree with 100% that the Wubi is good for character practice either. Just from the few examples you've shown, if we look at this one: 曲-qu－冂、卄、一 We can see that 冂、卄、一 does not show the correct composition of the character 曲 and is misleading the learner. 曲 is a 象形字 or what 說文解字 would classify as a 文 character (as opposed to 字 characters). 文 characters cannot be further separated into other standalone characters (as opposed to 字 characters, where the 字 itself can be further separated into 宀 and 子 hence the name 說文解字). 曲 can only be separated into strokes it is made of and these strokes are not 冂、卄、一 they are 丨㇆ 一丨丨一 This would of course be less effective for input purposes, but is the correct way to decompose 曲 while 冂、卄、一 is incorrect and is misleading for students. Even this other example you gave is a little problematic: 屋－wu－尸、一、厶、土 /house because 屋 is first and foremost made of 尸 and 至 and not 尸、一、厶、土 and it is misleading again. 至 is a 會意字 and should be correctly decomposed as (一 over 厶) and 土 and not 一 厶 土 So basically through systems like Wubi, you are not learning the correct structure of characters, you are just learning a separate character input system, which is actually quite complicated for beginner students and for studying purposes is misleading and in the end is a waste of time. The question is why do so, when we have Pinyin a Roman letter based input system, which is used by the majority of Chinese native speakers too.

[@user-nr7rs3mq3m]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial Thank you very much for your reply and your question! So here is my first reply concerning the explanation to the "曲" problem: Firstly 五笔 is a structure-based input method but not a stroke-based method(but with similar logic). A structure is understood as a COMPOUND of several strokes complying with the writing order, so in the case of 曲, 丨㇆ become 冂, 一丨丨become 卄, then a single 一, constructed in the original order of the strokes. So the logic is not DECOMPOSING 曲 into 冂、卄、一, but COMPOSING “丨㇆ ” into 冂 as well as “ 一丨丨”into 卄 etc. If the logic is based on decomposing the character, it is more convenient to decompose 曲 into "日丨丨" or "口 卄 " etc, but they don't comply with the writing order. In such wise, when I type this character, it is impossible for me to decompose 曲 directly into structures like "冂、卄、一", in contrast the main process is 1. Writing the character mentally. "丨㇆ 一丨丨一 " 2. Composing those basic strokes into structures in parallel. "冂、卄、一" 3. Searching in my memory the right keys where the structures are situated. "M, A, G" without the first step, it is really "natural" for me to type wrongly as "口 卄 ". I totally agree with your explanation according to , but in this context the reason why 曲 can't be divided into other independent characters (neither strokes nor structures) is of etymological value rather than morphological quality.("morphological" in a sense of it's compound form). To this extent, this is no more a problem cuz the structures are not defined as"independent characters" but a "compound of strokes" without standalone signification.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

​@@user-nr7rs3mq3m I think we are talking about different things now. In short, Wubi is not suitable for character structure practice, because it is not correctly decomposing characters (etymologically or structurally). Wubi has its own system for character decomposition, so essentially, you if you are using Wubi, you are practicing Wubi, not character structure. Furthermore, as I said before, for students of Chinese there are many problems we have to face already without having to learn a complicated system like Wubi, so giving us another one (especially if it's useless like Wubi and especially if there is Pinyin or Zhuyin which the majority of Native speakers use anyway) is wrong.

[@ann6303]

I was wondering about it😂

[@SwetPotato]

And many people find the "Pinyin system" not friendly toward learner. What do you think about it?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

I'm a bit undecided. There are things that make it quite confusing (I wrote a super short article about it here: www.foreverastudent.com/2013/06/pinyin-confusions.html). But the fact that it uses Roman letters is a very big plus.

[@renaultellis6188]

Thank god the koreans alphabetized their writing system

[@hector_barrios]

Is there a way to type in Chinese without pinyin?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Yes, there are a few other input systems: Zhuyin, Cangjie, writing input etc.

[@appa609]

This is called pinyin and is actually a really awkward system for someone who thinks in Chinese. Especially the part where you have to scroll through pages of wrong results in an incomprehensible order to find an uncommon character. Also if you speak non standard dialects you're screwed for sounding it out Most actual Chinese people use 五笔 which basically breaks the written character into parts and allows you to type what you see rather than what you say.

[@TheAmoscokkie]

so basically the key point here is u need to learn han yi ping yin in order to guess the correct characters.

[@elixirix]

Interesting to think the Chinese had to adopt the Roman alphabet eventually. Can you imagine if we’d had to adopt Chinese in order to do computing

[@yef66]

可以手写输入或笔画输入的😅 笔画输入法： 一 丨丿丶乛 只要5个笔画就可以了👍😆😄 不需要26个字母，5个按钮🔘就可以了😌

[@Pingijno]

isn't there a method of typing that includes diacritics?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

[@chelseamdeathal3547]

You speak pretty decent Chinese.

[@sallylauper8222]

Apparently there's no way to use tones in the pinyin you input. (PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong; I hope I'm wrong.)If you're typing in simple sentences that's ok. If you're trying to find a rare character it's not ok. Many times I've had to wade through 20-40 characters to find the character I'm trying to type, Or I've had to wade through ALL the characters for one pinyin syllable, only to find that a character simply cannot be typed. I'm doing a study of S. J. Wieger's "Chinese Characters, THEIR ORIGIN, ETYMOLOGY, HISTORY, CLASSIFICATION AND SIGNIFICATION. A THOROUGH STUDY FROM CHINESE DOCUMENTS." There are many rare and archaic Characters discussed in this work.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. In windows typing the number specifies the tone. In MacOS I don't know and I've wondered about this several times but it doesn't bother me too much to be honest. May I ask why you're doing a study on Wieger?

[@sallylauper8222]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial Hey Vladimir, uhm, when I type in the number right after the tone it just prints the character of that number. I'm using the IME (if that's the right word...) called "Chinese (Simplified, China) Microsoft Pinyin" {Because although I prefer traditional characters, I'm not good with "BoPoMoFo" and don't have a Taiwanese keyboard, and when I used the IME that lets you type traditional characters in Pinyin, it kept defaulting back to the simplified character IME...} I've been interested in Wieger's eccentric tome since way before I started studying Chinese; my father had a copy, but he was primarily interested in calligraphy; he doesn't speak Chinese. If fact it seems to me that most people who own that book don't speak Chinese. It's a good book for learning "about" Chinese writing, but it certainly won't help you to string a sentence together. Frankly, It's the only book on Chinese etymology that I have. I think maybe Karlgren has a similar book, and there's probably a lot of material in Chinese that I've overlooked, though it seems helpful to be Japanese if you're studying Chinese etymology. I've looked at the 說文解字 and found it pretty difficult to understand, however the quotes from 說文解字 in Wieger aren't to difficult. I'd like to ask for your suggestions for other books on etymology and on 小篆. Even if I find a better book than "Chinese Characters" I will still complete my critique of it, as it's author is almost as fascinating as his subject material.

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

​@@sallylauper8222 I have a Mac, but as far as I remember, I didn't have any problem indicating the tone with numbers on my PC using the traditional character input. It worked well. You are right about there not being any books about Chinese character etymology that are accurate, up-to-date and not academic. I'm asking about Wieger, because his is probably the most unfortunate book to use if you want to learn about Chinese character etymology. It's just straight up wrong in what I would guess is +50% of cases. I'm a graduate of Chinese studies and when I wanted to learn about Chinese character etymology, I ran into the same problem. I read many books about etymology including Karlgren's book, but it is outdated and uses an even more outdated transcription system which is very frustrating. I started to research Chinese character etymology on my own (mainly because I wanted to make a list of Chinese character phonetic series like 青 請清情晴精睛 for my own study purposes) and worked on the etymology of about 5000 characters with my small team. I even wanted to publish a 5000 character etymological dictionary, but the project grew to monstrous dimensions (took about 5 years to work on and still isn't finished, I read almost the entire 說文解字 and really researched almost 5000 characters individually and in detail) and I realized that with a small team like ours it would be impossible. So I distilled the 5000 characters and everything I learned into a shorter book, which I really hope to say is the best book about Chinese characters currently available. If you're interested have a look (www.foreverastudent.com/p/book.html). There is a 50 page preview that you can download and see if it's what you're looking for. I also started a youtube channel dedicated to Chinese character etymology, especially Chinese character phonetic series if you're interested (kzbin.info)

[@sallylauper8222]

@@VladimirSkultetyOfficial Cool man- I've seen some of you videos on Understanding Chinese Characters and I think phonetic sequences are something every student of Chinese should be exposed to. I've heard a lot of criticism of Wieger's book, but never seen or heard any examples cited. I know they are there, I do cite them, but the errors I've caught are all errors in pronunciation. He seems to follow the 說文解字 on etymology in most cases, so if Wieger's wrong, is the 說文解字 wrong, or is he misinterpreting it? I know the 說文解字 is not the begging and end of all Chinese etymology, but to go deeper I think one needs to go into rhyme studies and Old Chinese reconstruction (ain't nobody got time for that...) or 甲骨文 studies, which are really hard to come across. You've read 說文解字 cover to cover? That's an accomplishment!

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

​@@sallylauper8222 說文解字 is faulty too (but an epic work for the time) and it was Karlgren who followed 說文解字 and not Wieger in my opinion, because Wieger really goes into too many Zen stories about how this and that element or stroke is the heavenly energy and similar nonsense where all he had to do in many cases was to look at the Seal script version of the character to see he was wrong. It takes much much much more than just 說文解字 to interpret characters correctly. I worked with about 15 sources, ancient and modern (a 20 000 page academic dictionary with all recorded variants of all characters and all of their interpretations from ancient times to modern science) and used several techniques including Ancient or Middle Chinese phonetic reconstruction and comparison, character etymology triangulation, went through thousands of examples of how characters were used in ancient texts, looked at what meaning and pronunciation characters have in Chinese dialects, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, looked at old or rare versions of characters, character variants, synonyms, homonyms, semantic groups... 說文解字 is really just a small part of it, but when I analyze a character, 說文解字 is my starting reference.

[@ButiLao44]

Out of interest, do the characters even make sense or is it just a random series of lines somehow put together?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Hello. I don't understand your question. You mean the characters in the video, or Chinese characters in general?

[@ButiLao44]

Chinese characters in general :)

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

There is a system behind them:)

[@oriaan5217]

But how would native Chinese people do it? They most likely don’t know the Roman alphabet, Do they learn a new alphabet just to type?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

There are other input systems, but this is mostly how Chinese native speakers type too. Learning additional 25 Roman letters is nothing compared to the thousands of Chinese characters they have to know.

[@konsul2006]

Just looks like an extra step, why not just use the regular letters. I don't get it, and not to mention I don't have eye vision to interpret the small graphical symbols 🤓

[@urnikifood]

okay so i came here bcs of stray kids new trailer- ( their trailer had Chinese characters ) jshsjsj just wanted to learn how to write/type in Chinese !

[@Meza10731]

Do chinese people use the same method to type? Asking for a friend.

[@simonrandomguy5945]

Jo a co si myslíš o cangjie?

[@VladimirSkultetyOfficial]

Neviem o nom dokopy nic. Pouzival som ho asi dva krat aj to len tak aby som videl ako funguje.

[@rodo1]

nice awesome