Have you ever wondered what a keyboard from another country? We all know the difference between a Spaniard and an American, we simply have the Ñ key, there is not much else. However, what is a Chinese keyboard like? And Arabic?
We are going to see the most curious computer keyboards and the cultural and language differences that make this peripheral completely different from another in each place.
What is a keyboard like in China?
And although what I am going to tell you may possibly disappoint you… no, there are no chinese keyboards and these use the same one as you and me.
It is true that images like the one on the cover are real, and sometimes they need this type of keyboard to write certain things, however, their personal computers do not have them. What’s more, he thinks that his alphabet contains more than 3,000 characters. How big would it have to be?
So sorry, you’re not going to see a spectacularly weird image. You just have to look down and see your keyboard, because it is exactly the same (except for the Ñ). They use the same one as an American.
But then… they don’t write in their language?
Yes, they do, and you’ll wonder how. The way is very simple, you just have to write (with our alphabet) the pronunciation of the word you want to say, and the computer or mobile phone will give you the equivalent written in Chinese. It’s like your smartphone, when you type “pink” and it shows you a pink emoticon so you can add it to the text. Well, they get their letter or word written in Chinese. A way to replace those 3,000 characters that would not fit physically.
They also sometimes use drawing writing, which consists of making the character by hand in the space where the letters should be, so that the device recognizes it and generates it correctly.
This is something that does not happen in all languages. For example, the Arabs, although they usually have international keyboards, do have their equivalents or even stickers so as not to have to change the entire equipment. A very simple way to find out what a keyboard is like in another country is to take and change it on our smartphone. There you will really see what they use.
If you were curious about how they did it in countries with such different languages, now you know. What I wonder is what typewriters and methods they used would be like before the arrival of technology… Will we find out?
Well, although it may seem crazy to you, yes, those machines had the entire alphabet in physical format and were much more complicated than you imagine, only writing about 20 characters per minute, something too slow, but there was no other way.
The truth is that it is very curious and amazing the ability they had to remember the position of so many thousands of characters. I don’t even know how everyone learns them. The worst thing is to fail when you have half a page written. It would have to be frustrating, there was no delete key.