Thinking about Japanese V

When I was young and began wonder about computers, one day it occurred to me that Chinese keyboards must very, very big. So big, they would have thousands of keys. I imagined an old monk-like figure with white hair and long beard tapping away at his giant keyboard in a dimly lit basement. In Japan, fortunately, there is a better answer. They use romanji to input phonetic representations of desired words. A computer program then assists the disambiguation process since Japanese has an ambundance of homophones -- words that sound identical but are "spelled" differently.

In an earlier post, I used the name of Japan in Japanese, Nihon or Nippon, as an example. Typing either of these phonetic spellings into a computer setup for Japanese input will immediately convert these roman characters to kanji (日本). Beyond the required disambiguation, the system is quite efficient. An experienced typist can produce a document very quickly, at least as fast as phonetic European languages.

When I visited Hongkong for the second time recently -- this time on business -- I realised a substantial difference in the way language was used when compared to the Japanese business setting. In our Tokyo office, Japanese is strictly used, or English is strictly used. They are but a handful of people who can successfully navigate the language barrier well. In our Hongkong office, three languages are required for complete navigation: Catonese (the local Hongkong dialect), Mandarin (the national dialect for Mainland China), and English. Again, they are but a few who understand all three well enough to conduct business. Most people know two of three. English is the lowest common denominator -- everyone knows it. They begin by trying their strongest dialect then downshift to Mandarin, if possible, and finally English. All of this occurs in the beginning few seconds of a conversation. Sometimes a more basic form of a dialect is employed instead of switching down to English. Even worse, sometimes they pick words for languages that best suit their thoughts.

Why is this important to language input on a computer? Almost no business is done using written Chinese; nearly everything is English. This is very different than Japan. All client interactions, with the exception of a few foreign hedge funds, are spoken and written using Japanese. Curious, I asked why no one was writing Chinese e-mails. I was told, contrary to so-called common knowledge, written Chinese is not the same everywhere -- between Mainland and its satellites. Mainlanders often find it difficult to read a Hongkong newspaper and vice versa. Local grammar drives a slightly different use of words or order of characters. This requires a difficult adjustment on the part of the Mandarin speaker.

There is also no standard for input of Chinese characters. At the time of this writing, there are at least five major systems in use for Cantonese and Mandarin. In Japan, there is one. (I intentionally failed to mention this earlier.) I am convinced this is the key. The Modified Hepburn system is used by the vast majority of computers in Japan. I am sure the government has had a heavy hand in its success. There is no equivalent for Chinese language input between Mainland and its satellites.

One of the more complex input systems for Chinese characters uses a non-roman method where keys correspond to brushstrokes. For example, the letter b may correspond to a vertical slash, and c to a horizontal slash. A typist must memorize this system and imagine the shape of the character as it is written. Other systems are based upon competing romanizations. I suspect very soon a standard will emerge courtesy of the Mainland government in the interest of promoting computer literacy.