I\u2019ve just started learning Chinese in my spare time. Given that I studied Japanese for almost two years at university, Chinese has never been an entirely closed book to me in its written form (to me, obviously a \u5148\u751f is a teacher, but I had no idea until recently that the Chinese pronounce it xi\u0101nsheng, rather than something sensible such as sensei).<\/p>\n
I decided to figure out how to write it on my computer from the outset \u2013 these days I hardly ever write anything by hand.<\/p>\n
The most obvious way of typing Chinese is by entering the pronunciation in Pinyin and then have the computer display the various options. However, Chinese has so many homophones that it requires you to stop up and read the suggestions extremely frequently, which slows you down.<\/p>\n
I therefore decided to learn a stroke-based method instead, and I decided to go for \u4e94\u7b14\/Wubi, which apparently is the most widespread method in the PRC.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an extremely efficient method \u2013 any commonly used simplified Hanzi can be written with four keystrokes or less.<\/p>\n
As an example, here\u2019s the first paragraph from Chinese Wikipedia\u2019s article about Wubi:<\/p>\n
\u4e94\u7b14\u5b57\u578b\u8f93\u5165\u6cd5\u662f\u738b\u6c38\u6c11\u57281983\u5e748\u6708\u53d1\u660e\u7684\u4e00\u79cd\u6c49\u5b57\u8f93\u5165\u6cd5\u3002\u4e2d\u6587\u8f93\u5165\u6cd5\u7684\u7f16\u7801\u65b9\u6848\u5f88\u591a\uff0c\u4f46\u57fa\u672c\u4f9d\u636e\u90fd\u662f\u6c49\u5b57\u7684\u8bfb\u97f3\u548c\u5b57\u5f62\u4e24\u79cd\u5c5e\u6027\u3002\u4e94\u7b14\u5b57\u578b\u5b8c\u5168\u4f9d\u636e\u7b14\u753b\u548c\u5b57\u5f62\u7279\u5f81\u5bf9\u6c49\u5b57\u8fdb\u884c\u7f16\u7801\uff0c\u662f\u5178\u578b\u7684\u5f62\u7801\u8f93\u5165\u6cd5\u3002\u4e94\u7b14\u5b57\u578b\u8f93\u5165\u6cd5\u4e3b\u8981\u7528\u4e8e\u4f7f\u7528\u7b80\u4f53\u4e2d\u6587\u7684\u4e2d\u56fd\u5927\u9646\uff0c\u8fc7\u53bb\uff0c\u4e94\u7b14\u6253\u5b57\u6bd4\u62fc\u97f3\u65b9\u4fbf\uff0c\u4f46\u968f\u7740\u667a\u80fd\u62fc\u97f3\u7684\u5174\u8d77\uff0c\u4e94\u7b14\u5df2\u7ecf\u4e0d\u5177\u5907\u4f18\u52bf\u3002\u8c03\u67e5\u8868\u660e\uff0c\u76ee\u524d\uff0c\u5728\u5927\u5b66\u751f\u4e2d\uff0c\u4f7f\u7528\u4e94\u7b14\u7684\u4eba\u5df2\u7ecf\u5f88\u5c11\u4e86\u3002\u800c\u4e14\uff0c\u5f88\u591a\u624b\u673a\u6ca1\u6709QWERTY\u952e\u76d8\uff0c\u65e0\u6cd5\u5728\u624b\u673a\u4e0a\u4f7f\u7528\u4e94\u7b14\uff0c\u662f\u4e94\u7b14\u7684\u5de8\u5927\u52a3\u52bf\u3002<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
According to Google, this is transcribed as follows in Pinyin:<\/p>\n
W\u01d4b\u01d0 z\u00ecx\u00edng sh\u016br\u00f9 f\u01ce sh\u00ec W\u00e1ng Y\u01d2ngm\u00edn z\u00e0i 1983 ni\u00e1n 8 yu\u00e8 f\u0101m\u00edng de y\u012b zh\u01d2ng h\u00e0nz\u00ec sh\u016br\u00f9 f\u01ce. Zh\u014dngw\u00e9n sh\u016br\u00f9 f\u01ce de bi\u0101nm\u01ce f\u0101ng\u2019\u00e0n h\u011bndu\u014d, d\u00e0n j\u012bb\u011bn y\u012bj\u00f9 d\u014du sh\u00ec h\u00e0nz\u00ec de d\u00fay\u012bn h\u00e9 z\u00ecx\u00edng li\u01ceng zh\u01d2ng sh\u01d4x\u00ecng. W\u01d4 b\u01d0 z\u00ecx\u00edng w\u00e1nqu\u00e1n y\u012bj\u00f9 b\u01d0hu\u00e0 h\u00e9 z\u00ec x\u00edng t\u00e8zh\u0113ng du\u00ec h\u00e0nz\u00ec j\u00ecnx\u00edng bi\u0101nm\u01ce, sh\u00ec di\u01cenx\u00edng de x\u00edng m\u01ce sh\u016br\u00f9 f\u01ce. W\u01d4 b\u01d0 z\u00ec x\u00edng sh\u016br\u00f9 f\u01ce zh\u01d4y\u00e0o y\u00f2ng y\u00fa sh\u01d0y\u00f2ng ji\u01cent\u01d0 zh\u014dngw\u00e9n de zh\u014dnggu\u00f3 d\u00e0l\u00f9, gu\u00f2q\u00f9, w\u01d4 b\u01d0 d\u01cez\u00ec b\u01d0 p\u012bny\u012bn f\u0101ngbi\u00e0n, d\u00e0n su\u00edzhe zh\u00ecn\u00e9ng p\u012bny\u012bn de x\u012bngq\u01d0, w\u01d4 b\u01d0 y\u01d0j\u012bng b\u00f9 j\u00f9b\u00e8i y\u014dush\u00ec. Di\u00e0och\u00e1 bi\u01ceom\u00edng, m\u00f9qi\u00e1n, z\u00e0i d\u00e0xu\u00e9sh\u0113ng zh\u014dng, sh\u01d0y\u00f2ng w\u01d4 b\u01d0 de r\u00e9n y\u01d0j\u012bng h\u011bn sh\u01ceole. \u00c9rqi\u011b, h\u011bndu\u014d sh\u01d2uj\u012b m\u00e9iy\u01d2u QWERTY ji\u00e0np\u00e1n, w\u00faf\u01ce z\u00e0i sh\u01d2uj\u012b sh\u00e0ng sh\u01d0y\u00f2ng w\u01d4 b\u01d0, sh\u00ec w\u01d4 b\u01d0 de j\u00f9d\u00e0 li\u00e8sh\u00ec.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019ve written a program to generate the Wubi keystrokes to key this text (contact me if you\u2019re interested in the program):<\/p>\n
ggtt pbga lwty if j gyna d 1983rh 8eee ntje r ggtk icpb lwty if. khyy lwty if r xydc yypv tvqq, wjg adsg wyrn ftjb j icpb r yfn ujf t pb gae gmww tkh ntnt. ggtt pbga pfwg wyrn ttgl t pb gae trtg cf icpb fjtf xydc, j maga r gae dcg lwty if. ggtt pbga lwty if ygsv etgf wget tuws khyy r khlg ddbf, fpfc, ggtt rspb xx ruuj yywg, wjg bdud tdce ruuj r iw fhn, ggtt nnxc i hwtl wdrv. ymsj geje, hhue, d ditg k, wget ggtt r w nnxc tvit b. dmeg, tvqq rtsm imde QWERTYqvte, fqif d rtsm h wget ggtt, j ggtt r andd itrv.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Note how much shorter it is than the Pinyin version, and don\u2019t forget that keying the Hanzi through Pinyin would require a lot of interactivity whereas the Wubi version can be keyed without looking.<\/p>\n
However, I am finding the learning curve for Wubi to be quite steep. Lots of characters are really easy to type (w for \u4eba, eeee for \u6708, wwf for \u5750, and even khlg for \u4e2d\u56fd are all easily learned), but can anybody explain to me why \u6c14 is rnb in Wubi?!?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve just started learning Chinese in my spare time. Given that I studied Japanese for almost two years at university, Chinese has never been an entirely closed book to me in its written form (to me, obviously a \u5148\u751f is a teacher, but I had no idea until recently that the Chinese pronounce it xi\u0101nsheng, rather than something sensible such as sensei). I decided to figure out how to write it on my computer from the outset \u2013 these days I hardly ever write anything by hand. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,117,154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en","category-linguistics","category-zh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13777,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions\/13777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}