14-08-2003, 10:37 PM
They used to use a keyboard that had like 46 characters. Each one was a symbol and when typed it displayed that symbol. But they have stopped using that style of keyboard now really. They now use a western style QWERTY keyboard. Most of the symbols English equivalent consist of an english constanant and a vowel.
For example:
![[Image: ko.jpg]](http://www.ragol.co.uk/decswxaqz/ko.jpg)
So when they type "ko" into PSO (or any other JP software) it shows that symbol. The same goes for most of the other symbols too. They are a few exceptions. See this little thing I created to help me translate Japanese text to english letters.
![[Image: hiragana.jpg]](http://www.ragol.co.uk/decswxaqz/hiragana.jpg)
Certain sounds and letters are not in the Japanese language. They have real trouble with "r" and "l", they sound the same. So my name in Japanese is "ruke" becuase they don't have a "l" sound.
To cut a long story short, when you type say "konnichiwa" in english letters, they can understand because that's what they have to write to get it to show up in their symbols (hiragana in this case. There is also katakan and kanji but thats a whole different and complex thing :S)
That explain things?
For example:
So when they type "ko" into PSO (or any other JP software) it shows that symbol. The same goes for most of the other symbols too. They are a few exceptions. See this little thing I created to help me translate Japanese text to english letters.
Certain sounds and letters are not in the Japanese language. They have real trouble with "r" and "l", they sound the same. So my name in Japanese is "ruke" becuase they don't have a "l" sound.
To cut a long story short, when you type say "konnichiwa" in english letters, they can understand because that's what they have to write to get it to show up in their symbols (hiragana in this case. There is also katakan and kanji but thats a whole different and complex thing :S)
That explain things?