5 ms·

Chinese does have the additional complication of using a writing system that's not geared very well for fast entry on a mobile phone though.

shard 12y ago
Entry seems pretty fast to me. The pinyin system means that you can enter a few letters using the English alphabet and it will show you the most likely character. For common words, one or two letters per character is enough. I am not a native Chinese typist, but even by guessing at the proper spelling, the predictive entry system is good enough for me to type at a non-too-terrible speed.
- jpatokal 12y ago
  There are basically two styles of Chinese input: easy and slow via pinyin, or hard but fast via radicals. Both have their drawbacks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_input_methods_for_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_input_methods_for_comp...
  - kevcampb 12y ago
    I find it very surprising you have said pinyin is slow. It has the downside that you need to look at what you're typing, but it's certainly not slow. With modern IMEs it's more akin to something like Swype in it's usage. I am appalled when in other regions in China where they do not use pinyin, watching people spending over a minute trying to tell their friend that they just got on the train.
- gurkendoktor 12y ago
  Not a native speaker either, but I hate typing in Pinyin on a touchscreen device (iPhone in my case). You have to get almost every letter right, whereas if you type English and miss up to 50% of the letters, autocorrect can usually still save you. I agree that Pinyin feels pretty much as fast as typing English on a real computer, though. (German is also incredibly frustrating to type on a phone, as there are more ways to compose words than autocorrect could ever possibly know.)
reedlaw 12y ago
It depends on what input system you use. If you draw characters with your finger, as many Chinese do, it's pretty slow. If you're on Android and use Google Pinyin you can swipe across letters just like you can in English. Based on your swipe gestures it predicts what you're trying to type pretty well. If you're a Chinese typing expert, you can use Wubi[1] which can be used to achieve typing speeds higher than most English typists. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_method

shard 12y ago

Entry seems pretty fast to me. The pinyin system means that you can enter a few letters using the English alphabet and it will show you the most likely character. For common words, one or two letters per character is enough. I am not a native Chinese typist, but even by guessing at the proper spelling, the predictive entry system is good enough for me to type at a non-too-terrible speed.

jpatokal 12y ago
There are basically two styles of Chinese input: easy and slow via pinyin, or hard but fast via radicals. Both have their drawbacks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_input_methods_for_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_input_methods_for_comp...
- kevcampb 12y ago
  I find it very surprising you have said pinyin is slow. It has the downside that you need to look at what you're typing, but it's certainly not slow. With modern IMEs it's more akin to something like Swype in it's usage. I am appalled when in other regions in China where they do not use pinyin, watching people spending over a minute trying to tell their friend that they just got on the train.
gurkendoktor 12y ago
Not a native speaker either, but I hate typing in Pinyin on a touchscreen device (iPhone in my case). You have to get almost every letter right, whereas if you type English and miss up to 50% of the letters, autocorrect can usually still save you. I agree that Pinyin feels pretty much as fast as typing English on a real computer, though. (German is also incredibly frustrating to type on a phone, as there are more ways to compose words than autocorrect could ever possibly know.)

reedlaw 12y ago

It depends on what input system you use. If you draw characters with your finger, as many Chinese do, it's pretty slow. If you're on Android and use Google Pinyin you can swipe across letters just like you can in English. Based on your swipe gestures it predicts what you're trying to type pretty well. If you're a Chinese typing expert, you can use Wubi[1] which can be used to achieve typing speeds higher than most English typists. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wubi_method