 |
| A Chinese typewriter, circa 1980 |
我只想知道可以写多快。
("I just want to see how quickly I can write").
it's nonsense to say that it's slower to type Chinese in a phone message App, as someone was "knowledgeably" saying last night on BBC radio: explaining why it was that so many Chinese use "voicies" — the voice message on WhatsApp or WeChat. (yes, that's "voicies", with an "i")
I just typed that above and did it quickly, about as quickly as I'm typing this and I'm a foreigner who doesn't do it every day.
For input you can use the Pinyin method, and its good predictive character program, or just write the characters direct. In the hands of a Chinese it's going to be just as quick as I type this English. Most would use the latter, I'm guessing.
I think the reason they use "voicies" more — if indeed they do — is just because they like it more. Or something. In any case not because Chinese is slower to input. It's not.
********
PS: I remember back in the early 80s when we had our China consulting company in Canberra, we had a Chinese typewriter, about the size of a large carry-on bag and which needed an expert to use it. (That's it, in the pic above).
Basically, it was a mini printing press with moveable type. We had one young lady in the office, Bai Lu, a mainland Chinese, who had been trained to use it. Without Bai Lu we were lost. So in those days Chinese really was difficult to type.
No longer. Anyone can do it. Even me.
Sent from my iPhone
