- Sending an SMS in Chinese
The Chinese are big fans of SMS. But how do they send them? Certainly a mobile phone doesn’t have enough buttons to allow them to type?
So how it it done? It’s essentially the same way as how they type on a computer. The input is in Hanyu Pinyin, which
uses the Western characters. As a result, a choice of characters pops up, according to the transcription. The most used characters come first, of course, with the lesser used ones some scrolling away.
Even for a native speaker, I don’t think it will ever be as fast as typing directly, as can be done for European languages. But with exercise, one can come close. It’s easier than writing, since you get to select the character that ‘looks right’, and
I find it a great way to exercise – and occasionaly confuse Singaporean friends. Obviously you will need Chinese input on your phone. It’s standard for most phones sold here in Singapore.
About Guus Goorts
Guus has traveled widely and has lived in The Netherlands, Ghana, Belgium and Singapore. In descending order of fluency, he speaks Dutch, English, Mandarin, German and some rudiments of Spanish, French and Italian. Guus lives in Singapore with his wife and two young children. He settled in Singapore in early 2006 from his native country The Netherlands. After working in a job for corporate training, he founded Yago Languages, Singapore's guide to language learning.
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