Wait..

[Jerome Scuggs]

if china has a language where each word is its own character, how do they use keyboards?

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

I would imagine that there's the same kind of rules as sign language has--there are single signs for certain nouns/verbs/etc, but there is also a letter/phonetic sign for breaking things down. Not that I understand Chinese, Mandarin or anything else outside of Spanish and basic French, but I'd imagine that's how it is. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

[geekbot]

A Chinese character is not like a Roman character if that's what you're thinking. Chinese words are made up of boxes, slashes, etc. Put it all together and you have one word or "character".

The keyboard keys are mapped with different slashes/strokes. As you type parts of the word, the number of possiblilities of words decreases until you get to the word you want. Kind of like a mobile phone with fast tap or predictive text entry.

I'm pretty sure that's how it works, I don't know if there are other methods.

EDIT: There is no alphabet or "basic parts" that you can break all Chinese words down to. Some words are "compond". e.g. write the word "sun" next to the word "moon" and you have the word "bright", but not all words can be broken down like this.

This is different than Japanese or Korean where there is an "alphabet" and if you know the alphabet you can say any word.

[Kim]

The method of chinese typesetting I know, every letter on the keyboard represents a different "siding" of the word. As you type a second letter, many options for a chinese character pop up and choose the right one. To type quickly, of course you have to memorize what each of the keys represent.

[Arc]

Its very hard basically.

[Horny Elf]

ITS THE MOST AMAZING USE OF CTRL AND ALT YOU HAVE EVER FUCKING SEEN.