3 ms·

Well this explains how my Korean friend in college could type touch type in Korean and English on an American keyboard. I didn't know that Korean had an alphabe

Well this explains how my Korean friend in college could type touch type in Korean and English on an American keyboard. I didn't know that Korean had an alphabet, I thought it was pictograms or whatever.

ineedtosleep 15y ago
Your initial thought was partially right. Though it's not used as often these days, Korean does have hanja[1] which uses Chinese characters. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja
helpbygrace 15y ago
before Korean was invented, Chinese letters are used in Korea. Korean was invented based on the form of mouth that need to speak that sound. For example to say 'ㄱ', your mouth should be form like that. Not all Korean letter was made based on this concept but King Sejong who is known as inventor of Korean tried to make the public learn letter and write letter quickly, that requires easily understandable form.
kijin 15y ago
Modern Korean has 24 alphabets, plus 2 letters (ㅐ,ㅔ) each of which is technically a combination of two other letters but usually treated as a single letter. Guess how many keys the American keyboard reserves for English alphabets? 26. No need to shift keys around or rely on complicated modifier keys, unlike even some European keyboards. Korean alphabet + American keyboard = a match made in heaven.
otoburb 15y ago
What makes Korean touch typists really fast is the semi-regular symbol construction. Unlike an English keyboard (whether Dvorak or Qwerty), the Hanja consonants are primarily on the left while the vowels are on the right. So you typically have an alternating typing rhythm which can make typing extremely fast. Dvorak, to a similar extent, seems to be closest to mimicking this style of typing (although I hear Colemak is better with the keystroke distribution).

3 ms·

Well this explains how my Korean friend in college could type touch type in Korean and English on an American keyboard. I didn't know that Korean had an alphabe

by RandallBrown 15y ago

ineedtosleep 15y ago
Your initial thought was partially right. Though it's not used as often these days, Korean does have hanja[1] which uses Chinese characters. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanja
helpbygrace 15y ago
before Korean was invented, Chinese letters are used in Korea. Korean was invented based on the form of mouth that need to speak that sound. For example to say 'ㄱ', your mouth should be form like that. Not all Korean letter was made based on this concept but King Sejong who is known as inventor of Korean tried to make the public learn letter and write letter quickly, that requires easily understandable form.
kijin 15y ago
Modern Korean has 24 alphabets, plus 2 letters (ㅐ,ㅔ) each of which is technically a combination of two other letters but usually treated as a single letter. Guess how many keys the American keyboard reserves for English alphabets? 26. No need to shift keys around or rely on complicated modifier keys, unlike even some European keyboards. Korean alphabet + American keyboard = a match made in heaven.
otoburb 15y ago
What makes Korean touch typists really fast is the semi-regular symbol construction. Unlike an English keyboard (whether Dvorak or Qwerty), the Hanja consonants are primarily on the left while the vowels are on the right. So you typically have an alternating typing rhythm which can make typing extremely fast. Dvorak, to a similar extent, seems to be closest to mimicking this style of typing (although I hear Colemak is better with the keystroke distribution).