ㄅㄆㄇㄈ ?!?

[Ari 桑]

Because of my taiwan plans, I decided I should start typing in traditional. Sounds easier than it is. This bopomofo system is driving me crazy!

So question.

A: is there a traditional pinyin system? Because that would be fantastic.

And B: how does one go about learning bopomofo? I so far was able to get 北 from ㄅㄟˇ and that made me happy, but on the other hand, it feels so tedious and slow. There has to be a decently fast way to learn this. I guess the most annoying thing is that the sounds of the bopomofo characters don't correspond to the keys you press. How do you get your brain around this?

[Lu]

There are ways to type traditional using pinyin, I do it all the time (but I always need someone else to install it for me, so perhaps someone else can tell you how to install this).

For the rest, it's practice, practice, practice. Typing a lot helps, speed improves gradually. I could type it blind, on a non-bopomofo keyboard, at some point (although not very fast). It might also help to learn the bopomofo 'alphabet' (bo po mo fo, de te ne le), the keys on the keyboard are arranged in that order, up to down, left to right.

Good luck!

[Ari 桑]

Thats good news for me.

I can memorize where stuff is, I'm not worried about that. But I'm having problems typing practically everything. OK, so I want to type my chinese name, 桑鹏飞。Logic tells me it should be: ㄙㄚㄥˋ ㄆㄜㄥˊㄥㄟ (don't know how to do 1st tone). But none of this works. Help!

[skylee]

Because of my taiwan plans, I decided I should start typing in traditional. Sounds easier than it is. This bopomofo system is driving me crazy!

I type in traditional Chinese using the pinyin input method provided by Windows. I have chosen 中文(PRC) as I have decided that I would like to follow the Mainland pronunciation standard. Just choose traditional at the language bar to switch from simplified to traditional.

Even if you choose 中文(台灣), you can set the settings to 羅馬拼音, which as far as I can see is the same as Hanyu Pinyin (although some pronunciations may be different).

I don't see the need to learn to type using bopomofo system.

[Lu]

ㄙㄚㄥˋ should be ㄙㄤˋ. ㄤ is ang, not just ng

ㄆㄜㄥˊ should be ㄆㄥˊ. Same idea here, ㄥ is eng, not just ng.

ㄥㄟ : that f looks wrong. First tone is not typed or written, you got that right.

You might want to study the rules a bit more and then try typing again, or find a conversion table (wait, I can do that for you... http://www.library.ucla.edu/eastasian/ctable3.htm, there you go. If you can't read it, you need to change the encoding).

Skylee: typing bopomofo can come in handy sometimes, at computers that happen not to have pinyin input, and it looks like it makes good practice for learning the system, it right away shows if you got it right.

Ari, again, good luck! And don't hesitate to ask if you have more questions.

[madizi]

A: is there a traditional pinyin system? Because that would be fantastic.

No, and it's the funniest thing in TW. Sometimes you can see very odd transliterations. The funniest are traffic signs. On one traffic sign you see one transliteration, but on the next one there is different transliteration of the same name (of city or street).

[Lu]

Madizi: that is a great topic, and it sure is a mess here, but I think what the OP meant is: is there a way to type traditional in (Hanyu) pinyin. I actually don't think the transliteration mess is related to the type of characters.

(Taiwan does have a kind of semi-default-standard, which is bad Wade-Giles, that is, W-G without the ' and ", and yi instead of i. But few Taiwanese actually know this system.)

[skylee]

typing bopomofo can come in handy sometimes, at computers that happen not to have pinyin input,

I know what you mean. When I travel I often come across such computers. And the solution is to use the on-line typing facilities provided by www.mdbg.net.

PS - It is always good to learn something new. I just don't see the need and I am too lazy to learn it anyway.

[Lu]

I just don't see the need

Well, of course, the majority of the people seem to get by just fine without it :-)

But still I think that when in Taiwan, it is useful to learn bopomofo, as it is the most commonly agreed upon system here to spell out sounds. There are few people in Taiwan who know pinyin or any other alphabetized system. And if you know the system, typing is not that hard anymore (just takes time).

And I just thought of something else one'd need it for: if you buy a phone here, chances are it only types Chinese using bopomofo. Had to look long and hard for one that knows pinyin.

[skylee]

And I just thought of something else one'd need it for: if you buy a phone here, chances are it only types Chinese using bopomofo. Had to look long and hard for one that knows pinyin.

Really? I thought they used stroke orders (the 5-key type). Mine (SE810i) supports only stroke orders input to produce traditional characters (the orders must follow the Taiwan standard, though). So we do not need any knowledge on bopomofo or hanyu pinyin to input characters to our mobile phones. As long as we can write it, we can input it. ho ho ho.

[Ari 桑]

Haha! I got traditional working with hanyu pinyin by changing the 中文台灣 settings, but I can't change the character if its not correct. For example, I want to say 我要到台湾去。Ok, easy enough right? But when I use this new system, I get 我要到台灣區. With tones I can get it to say what I want. But what if I want to say something more obscure, for example 姊姊。With this system I get 子子. Even with tones it doesn't work. What do I do?

[madizi]

Madizi: that is a great topic, and it sure is a mess here, but I think what the OP meant is: is there a way to type traditional in (Hanyu) pinyin. I actually don't think the transliteration mess is related to the type of characters.

(Taiwan does have a kind of semi-default-standard, which is bad Wade-Giles, that is, W-G without the ' and ", and yi instead of i. But few Taiwanese actually know this system.)

I know, Lu, I know. It was just a side note......

[skylee]

After typing, when the characters are still underlined with a dotted line, press the up/down arrow buttons. A list of options will appear and you can choose the right option by pressing the right number or using the up/down arrow buttons or using the mouse (if there are a lot of options, use page up/down). After this, press return to confirm the choice.

[xiaojiang216]

To type Traditional characters with pinyin, you don't even have to bother downloading the 台湾 input interface. If you use Microsoft IME or something like it (such as 紫光, etc.) there should be a button that is labeled "简". If you click on it, it will turn to “繁" and you will be able to type in Traditional!

[Ari 桑]

Ahha! Xiaojiang, thank you! This is so much better! I like the normal microsoft input method, and I'm used to it, so its great to be able to type just like I do simplified. I got it set up so the 簡/繁 button is on my taskbar.

Is there any way of setting a keystroke so I can change between simp and trad? I'm totally ok with the way it is now (its also nice to not have to toggle between three languages), but that would make changing between the two even faster. But if not, no problem.

Thanks a bunch!

[ipsi()]

I haven't seen a way, but I'm interested in knowing if there is one.

[atitarev]

I practiced a little with CE-Star on my Pocket PC using ㄅㄆㄇㄈ as input - copied a couple of stories from a Taiwanese book, which had Hanzi and Bopomofo. The character layout can be seen on the screen and you just click on the symbol to type it.

There are 2 ways - one way to type Hanzi using Bopomofo, another method to practice is to enter the Zhuyin Fuhao characters themselves.

[Lu]

Is there any way of setting a keystroke so I can change between simp and trad?

I would think there is, but not sure which one. Try out some combinations, like shift-space or control-shift, something like that might do the trick.

I used the method you're using now, but when you use that to write emails to Taiwan they come out as luanma on the other end (computers here use Big-5 instead of GB2312), so if you want to email to Taiwan, you might have to figure out another method.