Does anybody use a Japanese Keyboard?

I'd quite like to learn Kana direct input. I know you can get Kana stickers, but there are some extra buttons on a Japanese keyboard I'd like to have (not sure what they do yet).

Was just wondering if anybody else has tried this, or do people just stick with the IME? I've only been able to find very basic ones available online in the UK.

These are the extra keys I'm talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_input_keys

I bothered to learn Kana input using a game. I then went to an online Japanese learning site to use it, and it didn't have kana input. I asked them to implement it, and their reply was that almost nobody there (Japan) uses direct input, so it wasn't likely they would implement it.

I switched back to IME and haven't looked back since.

Also, I bought an actual Japanese keyboard, but a few keys are in different places, and the tiny spacebar is really awkward... So it sits in the closet.

I used to use typical Japanese keyboards, but I didn't find those extra keys particularly useful, and they do take up space. So I switched to your average keyboard and assigned some extra functions on a Japanese keyboard to function keys and such. My current setting is:

alt+space: language change between Japanese and the Latin alphabet,
F7: turn into full size katakana (e.g., あ becomes ア),
F8: turn into half size katakana (e.g., あ becomes ｱ),
F9: turn into full size Latin alphabet (e.g., あ becomes ａ),
F10: turn into half size Latin alphabet (e.g., あ becomes a),
Space: kanjify romaji input (This is the default setting for mac and windows).

The above is more than enough for me. I rarely use F9 and F10 also.

Direct kana input is supposed to allow for faster typing in Japanese. But I didn't bother learning two input methods, so those kanas on my keyboards were sitting there as eye candy.

Thanks guys. I would like to learn Kana input eventually, but I'll leave it for now, especially as romaji input seems pretty standard anyway.

This thread reminded me of this video

wccrawford Wrote:I bothered to learn Kana input using a game. I then went to an online Japanese learning site to use it, and it didn't have kana input. I asked them to implement it, and their reply was that almost nobody there (Japan) uses direct input, so it wasn't likely they would implement it.

I switched back to IME and haven't looked back since.

Also, I bought an actual Japanese keyboard, but a few keys are in different places, and the tiny spacebar is really awkward... So it sits in the closet.

Nobody? So I learned it for nothing? Oh, well. Should I keep using it, or should I switch back to romaji?

fleet street Wrote:Nobody? So I learned it for nothing? Oh, well. Should I keep using it, or should I switch back to romaji?

Is this the first you've heard?

If you want my opinion, ditch the kana layout and never look back. There will never be a time when only the kana layout and not romaji will be available, and plenty of the reverse. But hey, if it floats your boat and doesn't make you rage, feel free to continue using it when it's available.

wccrawford Wrote:I bothered to learn Kana input using a game. I then went to an online Japanese learning site to use it, and it didn't have kana input. I asked them to implement it, and their reply was that almost nobody there (Japan) uses direct input, so it wasn't likely they would implement it.

I switched back to IME and haven't looked back since.

Also, I bought an actual Japanese keyboard, but a few keys are in different places, and the tiny spacebar is really awkward... So it sits in the closet.

Where can I find this game? I'm interested in using the kana keyboard too.

JimmySeal Wrote:If you want my opinion, ditch the kana layout and never look back.

Agreed. I never understand why so many foreigners seem to want to learn the kana layout.

fleet street Wrote:Nobody? So I learned it for nothing? Oh, well. Should I keep using it, or should I switch back to romaji?

If you are able to type significantly faster in it, use the keyboard shortcuts with no problems (copy, paste, undo, these kind of things that help a lot), and it doesn't affect your ability to type using QWERTY/Dvorak/Colemak/whatever-layout-you-use in other languages, I'd say keep using it. Measure your speed with long texts and see. It's like being keyboard-bilingual, a relatively rare ability.

One thing I know from experience is that it's very difficult to type fast and fluently in more than one keyboard layout, and that's the reason most people stick to only one (usually QWERTY) for their entire lives—even the Japanese and Chinese people. The Kana layout only works for Japanese so, for someone looking for consistency and who types in more than one language, the interference caused by its 'muscle memorization' can be a hindrance.

ta12121 Wrote:

This thread reminded me of this video

It's interesting that, with that chorded keyboard, she presses two or more keys at the same time to generate the syllables—much faster than pressing each key individually in sequence.