There was no opportunity to see how they do it "live". When I was in China one day I even forgot how to pay attention to it.
But I know that they have "thousands" of hieroglyphs! So how does this happen on computers and smartphones?
In addition to hieroglyphs, there is a syllable alphabet in Japanese - kana. Just as on the Russian keyboard there are Cyrillic letters, on the Japanese - alphabet signs. There are 46 of them, and using the alphabet you can type any word in the Japanese language. To do this, the input method editor IME (Input Method Editor) must be installed on the computer, which automatically replaces the alphabet characters with hieroglyphs. However, unlike T9, IME doesn’t think out the words. You need to type the whole word in alphabet, then the program will offer all possible options for writing it in hieroglyphs.
There are a lot of homonyms in Japanese - words that sound the same, but are written in different hieroglyphs. Therefore, the program shows all the options, and the person only has to choose the one he needs. And then, for the conversion to occur, press the space bar.
If the keyboard or laptop was not purchased in Japan, and you need to type in Japanese, you can focus on the Latin alphabet. To do this, it is enough to install support for the Japanese language, and the program will replace the sakura you have written with さ く ら (the word "sakura" written in the alphabet) or さ (the word "sakura" written in a hieroglyph). And to type "My Planet", you have to type moyapurane-ta on your keyboard. It turns out モ ヤ プ ラ ネ ー タ.
Promotional video:
A similar system is used on the telephone. First, the word must be typed in alphabet, then the program converts the text into hieroglyphs. Alphabet characters are collected in clusters of five. You need to click on the central character and slide your finger up or down, right or left to print adjacent ones. Another option is to use the QWERTY layout to type in the Latin alphabet just like on a computer.
But do not think that in Japanese you can do without hieroglyphs, knowing only the alphabet. Since there are many homonyms in this language, it is possible to understand which word is meant only by writing it down in hieroglyphs. In oral speech, everything is simpler - you can understand the context or explain in other words. There is no such possibility on the letter.
