To type in a “non-Roman” language like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, or many more, you need to change your computer's input language. Here's how.

Changing keyboard input language

1. Go to the Control Panel by clicking "Start"
2. Click "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options"

 

3. Click "Add other languages"

4. To get languages such as Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and more, check the following boxes: "Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages including Thai" and "Install files for East Asian Languages"

5. You will be prompted to restart your computer for the new settings to take effect, click "Yes"

6. Once your computer is restarted, follow steps 1-3 again. Once you are on the "Languages" tab,  click "Details"

7. Now click "Add" to select input languages

8. Select a language from the drop down menu and click "OK" (you can also change the keyboard layout, if necessary). Repeat this process until you have added all of the languages that you'd like to use.

9. Now you should be back on the "Settings" tab. Click "Language Bar"

10. Make sure the following boxes are checked and then click "OK": "Show the Language bar on the desktop", "Show additional Language bar icons in the taskbar", and "Show text labels on the Language bar"

11. The Language bar will pop up on your desktop, and from there you can select one of the languages that you added in Step 5 (move between input sources with left alt+shift)

On-screen keyboard

For many languages, like Arabic and Korean, you will want to use the on-screen keyboard. Here are steps to help you find it:

1. On the Start menu, click "All Programs" -> "Accessories" -> "Accessibility" -> "On-Screen Keyboard"

2. Now when you select a language from the Language Bar, the corresponding keyboard will show, when applicable. Here’s an example of what the Arabic keyboard looks like:

How to type Simplified Chinese using Pinyin

1. Select "CH Chinese (PRC)" from the Language Bar

2. Now you can begin typing pinyin and hit the spacebar to convert text into the corresponding characters

3. Alternately, if you would like to type pinyin with tone marks using the word+tone number (ex: hao2 = háo) you can download a pinyin input method editor called "Pinyinput"

How to type Japanese using all three alphabets

1. Select Japanese from the Language Bar
2. Click "Input Mode" and select "Hiragana"

2. Now you can begin typing hiragana and hit to spacebar once to convert it to kanji, or hit it again to see the scrolling list of kanji

4. To type katakana, all you have to do is click "Input Mode" and select "Katakana"

Now you should be able to make flashcards and study on Quizlet in dozens of languages!

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