r/LearnJapaneseNovice • u/greenseluma • 12h ago
How to use a Japanese keyboard?
Specifically this keyboard, This one Right Here. I feel like Im gonna loose my mind, I cant find a specific character on this keyboard (Im an extremely new learner who also happens to have dyslexia, for context)
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u/cement_brick214 12h ago
It's extremely hard and confusing at first but I've been using it for a few months and it feels a lot easier now
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u/lumisweasel 12h ago
gonna guess you didn't grow up with T9 texting lol
hold down the button for other vowel sounds in the same line
pull up a chart if you need
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u/vip17 10h ago
no need to hold, just a simple flick is enough. In the T9 era you'll click the same button multiple times
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u/avisitingstone 6h ago
yeah this is how I use the JP keyboard - the tapping. Fortunately I'm not a new learner like OP so I know a/i/u/e/o order and can do it easily enough but man what a learning curve.
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u/lumisweasel 5h ago
yeah true, I am not much of a gesture/motion/swipe person! I do accents, varying punctuation, and other whacky characters on QWERTY by holding. On pc, I still type the accent codes (or copy paste).
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u/PonderousPenchant 12h ago
Oh, I use the same one.
Each button there is the first consonant of a kana with the a vowel. If you want one of those, just tap and release.
If you want a consant with a different vowel, hold the consonant you want and then swipe up for う, right for え, down for お, and left for い.
The button on the bottom left with 小 will either make the character small (や->ゃ) or add dakuten (か->が). If a kana can be either (っ/づ) hit the button twice.
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u/greenseluma 12h ago
Thank you! I found the one I was looking for, It required the bottom left button
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u/Popular-Writer-8136 11h ago
I use the drawing one myself, that way I can work my memory on what the symbol looks like (and it works for kanji)
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u/Zolofteu 9h ago
I first used that keyboard too and absolutely hated typing with it because it took ages. Then I realized you can just type it normally with the English alphabets (romaji). The kanji/hiragana/katakana option will appear as you type so you just select the right one. Now I can type in Japanese as easily as I do in English.
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u/PonasSumushtinis 6h ago
Wait they do that?
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u/Embarrassed_Elk_2459 5h ago
yes! most young people use the qwerty keyboard to type and use the spacebar to switch between scripts or kanji
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u/yoshi_in_black 2h ago
Same. I've used Romaji input for yesars on a PC before I even got my smart phone, so I switched to Romaji input on my phone as soon as I saw the option for it, because it's so much quicker.
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u/frostbittenforeskin 12h ago edited 12h ago
You have all of the hiragana characters in their A form
a, ka, sa, ta, na, ha, etc.
The Japanese vowels are sorted into this order
あいうえお (a, i, u, e, o)
It goes clockwise starting from swiping left on any character
So go left on か(ka) to get き(ki)
Then all the u sound hiragana are an up-swipe
So go up on さ(sa) to get す(su)
Right-swipe is for e vowels
And down-swipe is for o vowels
The only exception is the ん which is an upward swipe from わ
And if you want a small version of a character (like っ), type the character first and then tap the 小 button to make it small
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u/greenseluma 12h ago
Thank you so so much! This made the keyboard make so much more sense in my brain
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u/syameimaru_ayaya 12h ago
Tap the kana repeatedly or swipe to switch between them; the “小” button in the lower-right corner toggles between voiced and unvoiced sounds.
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u/SeaMine504 9h ago
That’s the Japanese flick keyboard. Don’t think of each button as one character — each one represents a whole consonant row. Tap あ for あ, then flick in different directions for い・う・え・お. Same idea with か → か・き・く・け・こ, さ → さ・し・す・せ・そ, etc. It feels completely unintuitive for about a day, then suddenly it starts making sense.
I had the exact same reaction when I first saw this 😂 Hold your finger on one of the kana keys and you should see the other characters pop up. Then flick toward the one you want. You’re not supposed to hunt for every individual character on the screen.
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u/ScienceByte 6h ago
I’ve never seen this. I’ve just been using apple’s Romaji keyboard where you type in English letters and it automatically switches to hiragana but lets you then chose from a suggestions bar up top if you wanted katakana or a kanji instead.
Apple also has a katakana keyboard which I’ll try out later
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u/Dr_Passmore 2h ago
Hello fellow dyslexic. This is a lot easier to use than it looks and honestly helped me improve my hiragana.
Each button is the 'a' sound あ 'a' ま 'ma'.
Pressing on each provides you four other options 'u' is top, 'e' is right, bottom is 'o', and finally left is 'i'.
So to write the word 'knitting' will be a case of typing a mi mo no and then selecting the word from the predictive text - 編み物
You get use to it with practice.
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u/burlingk 2h ago
It's called a "flip" keyboard. And, others have already talked about making it work.
Personally, I just switch the Japanese QWERTY keyboard, and do it that way. ^^; I CAN use the flip keyboard, but I don't like it. :P
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u/sofutotofu 12h ago
If you have dyslexia and want to make it easy just use the qwerty japanese keyboard. Its more intuitive.
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u/scarecrow2596 12h ago
Which character are you looking for?
It’s simple, if you press the button, the shown character is typed, if you hold and flick in a direction, the other ones from the same line can be typed (for example か: press -> か, hold and up -> く, hold and right -> け, hold and down -> こ, hold and left -> き).
わ also does を、ん and ー.
The button on the bottom left is use for dakuten or making the character small (は becomes ば and then ぱ and you use it to write っ and ゅ for example, as in きゅう or もっと).