Sorry I couldn’t come up with a better title.
What’s the deal with かな入力 on Japanese keyboard? I have never seen anyone using it.
I actually know some people who know other people who use it, but inefficiently and I suppose shamefully.
If you have tried to learn it, please tell me why.
I think I might actually try it someday but I am afraid I might like it.
EDIT
Yes I mean physical keyboard, not the smartphone piece of software.
Thank you guys for your replies, it seems learning the kana input way is probably not worth the hassle…
19 comments
I tried to learn it once, because you almost reduce the keystroke by half, since Romaji input require 2 keystrokes per character.
Then I realised on US layout you don’t have enough key, so I stopped.
Nowadays Japanese people just learn Romaji input because they can learn English at the same time.
I’ve seen a few people who could type with it, they were very efficient compared to alphabet writing.
Just like people writing on there phone with the kana keyboard. Once you master it it’s waaaay faster
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I’ve heard that professional typists use it because when you can do it you can type way faster.
I learned it once because I was a massive weeb.
Old people
If you mean on PC keyboards then yeah I don’t understand it. I totally ignore it. On smartphones however, yeah I use the nine key kana keyboard. I’m not quite “pro” enough to do kana swiping though. That seems to be pretty fast but I’m happy with double and triple tapping.
A really old guy I used to work with used it. It bothered me because a few times he borrowed my computer to do some work, and then he left the settings like that and I didn’t know how to change it back to normal.
I use it. Always have. I think my brain is too hardwired to ‘English keyboard means English’ so it makes me slower when trying to write Japanese with it. Just prefer the kana keyboard.
All the JP people around me use it, so I learned as well! It’s much faster than using a regular keyboard once you get used to it. Using the swipe method tap is あ, swipe to left is い, swipe up is う, swipe left is え, swipe down is お. Bigger keys and a whole かな per move makes it a lot more efficient and less likely to mistype.
Highly recommend.
When I got a job where I was actually typing regularly in Japanese, a coworker asked why I didn’t use kana input. Considering the kana are already printed on the keys, I was interested in the idea, so I adopted it.
I find it’s far and away easier to think in Japanese when I type in kana input, not to mention faster.
The one and only drawback is that it makes sharing computers with romaji-input folks a minor hassle.
Kana input was how Japanese engineers intended for people to use computers. The problem was, in the 80s it was quite difficult to display kanji. Most computers either output in katakana or English. Have you ever seen a manga/video game/etc where a robot speaks with katakana in place of hiragana? Or a printer for fax machine with a tiny katakana display? That’s why.
So what happened is that the majority of the Japanese population got their first experiences on computers in English, often in English classes. So IME based on romaji became the norm.
I’ve only met two or three people in over a decade here who use kana input on their computer.
In my 12 years, 8 of them working in a Japanese office environment, I have never seen nor heard of this being done. I am sure the people who use it on a daily basis have some sort of very specific niche reason.
Edit: You mean computer keyboards, not smartphones, right?
It’s a remnant of the past.
Today some Japanese PC makers are offering laptop keyboards without the small かな printed on it.
Since I have a Japanese keyboard I started using it, thinking it was the norm. Now I am just used to it.
Do you mean PC keyboards or smartphone keyboards?
For smartphone keyboards I have yet to see someone NOT using kana input, this is 10 times faster, especially with the touch and slide. Pressing the same key multiple times is slow, probably slower than using a qwerty but touch and slide is insanely fast.
As for PC keyboards, I have seen a few Japanese (all in their 50’s) using it proficiently but the main bulk just type letters. It’s not faster but it’s more convenient and easier to learn.
It’s great if you want to get the highest scores in The Typing Of The Dead.
had a coworker who used it. I couldn’t type at all on his computer, so it had the value of making looking like an illiterate moron who had to peck key by key and ignore the usual Hepburn input method. It would probably work on many Japanese people as well.
I use it because I find it more intuitive than converting to and then typing in romaji.