Romaji input, kana input, and thumb-shift keyboard layout. Below is a… - Feed Post by mog86uk
Romaji input, kana input, and thumb-shift keyboard layout.
Below is a picture showing the kana key layout on Japanese keyboards. For the last few years I've used this layout for typing Japanese characters, but the majority of even Japanese people type Japanese characters using romaji input.
I'm not posting this to recommend anyone switches to it. Kana layout has some fairly big negative sides to it—negatives such as having to use 4 rows of keys instead of 3, and having to use the all the extra keys on the ends of the rows, just for typing the basic kana. (Romaji layout only requires 19~20 alphabet keys to make all the standard kana, whereas kana layout requires 47 keys AND needs the shift key to do the same thing. You need big hands for a start...)
Now have a look at the kana key layout of a 親指シフト (thumb-shift) keyboard:
http://eee-life.com/kb/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/white-full.jpg
↑It uses the special 親指左 and 親指右 keys at the bottom as modifier keys, which you press with your left and right thumbs. This allows it to fit all the kana onto 3 normal-length rows of keys. I've ordered this keyboard online, as I've always wanted to try this out, but maybe it will be really rubbish.
Just mainly posting this as someone was wondering the other day what "romaji input" and "kana input" meant, and to see what people think about the thumb-shift idea. ^^
Below is a picture showing the kana key layout on Japanese keyboards. For the last few years I've used this layout for typing Japanese characters, but the majority of even Japanese people type Japanese characters using romaji input.
I'm not posting this to recommend anyone switches to it. Kana layout has some fairly big negative sides to it—negatives such as having to use 4 rows of keys instead of 3, and having to use the all the extra keys on the ends of the rows, just for typing the basic kana. (Romaji layout only requires 19~20 alphabet keys to make all the standard kana, whereas kana layout requires 47 keys AND needs the shift key to do the same thing. You need big hands for a start...)
Now have a look at the kana key layout of a 親指シフト (thumb-shift) keyboard:
http://eee-life.com/kb/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/white-full.jpg
↑It uses the special 親指左 and 親指右 keys at the bottom as modifier keys, which you press with your left and right thumbs. This allows it to fit all the kana onto 3 normal-length rows of keys. I've ordered this keyboard online, as I've always wanted to try this out, but maybe it will be really rubbish.
Just mainly posting this as someone was wondering the other day what "romaji input" and "kana input" meant, and to see what people think about the thumb-shift idea. ^^
posted by mog86uk
Comments 7
Btw, in case people people new to learning Japanese haven't started learning to type it yet and might think I'm saying they need a Japanese keyboard, here is a picture of the current keyboard model I'm typing Japanese on:
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2007/05/keyboard_head_to_head_razer_vs_revolt/b3.jpg
↑As you can see, it is regular English QWERTY-layout keyboard (UK layout). You don't need a Japanese keyboard at all. Many keyboards sold in Japan don't even show the kana on the keys. Any keyboard is able to be used to type Japanese characters.
Obviously it's a little difficult using kana input on a keyboard that doesn't tell you which key is for which kana. Some people buy or make stickers for each key, but I never did this. Once you learn to touch-type kana layout, then it doesn't matter what the key faces show. (You don't look at the keys at all when touch-typing—it wouldn't make any difference if the keys were all blank!) ^^
we can switch the keyboards from the pc as well
Normally nearly everyone use romaji, sometimes when they use a cell phone, then thy use Hiragana.
- I've heard statistics like 95% of native Japanese people use romaji input on their computer keyboards. And on phones it's more something like like 2/3 use kana (such as flick input) and 1/3 use romaji input.
http://japaneselevelup.com/kana-input-vs-qwerty-romaji-smart-phone/
I imagine thumb-shift users are probably less than even 0.1% of the population.
Personally I don't think I'm ever going to go back to using romaji input mode. Once you've been using kana input for a while and have been thinking in moraic syllables, trying to use romaji input again to type vowels and consonants separately feels very very wrong. I've always thought it amusing how people are so strongly against learning materials being written in romaji (such as here in the level 1 lessons on JCJP), but then when they are typing Japanese characters they think nothing of the fact that they themselves are actually using romaji to do it. XD
But I still don't think I will actually recommend kana input over romaji input mode, even if I feel that romaji input mode is counter-productive to thinking correctly in Japanese. It's probably better for overall typing ability to stick with one keyboard layout to use for both English (and other languages) and Japanese, so that when you improve your touch-typing speed for one it directly improves your speed in the other. I'm sure my typing speed for English would be better if I'd never started using kana layout for Japanese, but I don't regret it at all either. ^^ 
Like most people, I use romaji-input on keyboard but on phone it would be easier to type straight in kana. Being so used to qwerty-romaji on keyboard it would be a challenge to learn kana-input ;) but not an impossible thing, might be fun. And mastering kana-input would make typing in Japanese faster as well.- @Acidron, Check out this animation↓ ^^
http://nicola.sunicom.co.jp/compare.htm
lt demonstrates the difference in how long it takes to type the same paragraph using the three different key layouts, for when the keys are typed at the exact same rate.
The top keyboard is "thumb-shift" input (the keyboard I'm buying).
The middle keyboard is kana input (the input mode I use).
The bottom keyboard is romaji input (what most people use).
But, in reality, because the keys are more spread out in kana input layout, romaji input layout is easier to press the keys at a faster rate. Kana input is still faster, but the difference isn't quite so extreme.
However, thumb-shift on the other hand doesn't suffer from the keys being spread out. The only thing that might cause thumb-shift layout to be a slower typing rate than romaji layout is if using the two thumb modifier keys slows down the pace you can use your other 8 fingers. Will have to wait and see when I get my new keyboard. ^^ - Okay, maybe a little sad, but I decided to count the number of key strokes used in that animation I posted in my previous post...
Thumb-shift layout = 195 key strokes (along with 80 presses of the two thumb modifier keys).
Kana input = 219 key strokes. HOWEVER, five of what it animated as separate keystrokes are actually just the SHIFT modifier key being pressed (needed for some kana like っ ゃ ゅ ょ を). So I'd count this as 214 key strokes along with 5 modifier key presses.
Romaji input = 338 key strokes!!
