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  • Eribee
  • Adventurer

    • 62

    • November 09, 2009, 03:19:05 pm
    • South Korea
Korean for my laptop
« on: September 21, 2010, 06:48:36 pm »
Hi!

Does anyone know where I can download a programme to let me type in Korean?

Thanks!


  • Paul
  • Featured Contributor

    • 2055

    • September 21, 2010, 10:28:58 pm
    • Seoul
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2010, 10:55:52 pm »
Foreign languages do not require special software. Any such software promoting this notion is most probably malware designed to harm your machine.

I'm going to presume you're using a Windows OS laptop here. If you're using Mac, it'll be similar, and probably EASIER to find (and if you use Linux you should know already who to ask!)

1) First, hit up Control Panel. In Vista or 7, that should be in your Start Menu in plain sight. Under XP or some setups it may be under a sub-menu. Find it.

2) Next, pick Regional and Language Options.

NOTE: You MAY need your Windows CD for this. As laptops tend to use that stupid recovery disk rubbish, they probably chose this on factory install, but you may get unlucky. Do a quick test, access Daum (daum.net). If you see Hangul, you're OK. As an aside, if you've already seen hangul on other webpages, don't presume you're set as most Korean webpages save their text as images and images always work. If Daum shows gibberish like boxes and lots of ? marks, get a CD ready and hope its the right one. You'll need to find a way to install "East Asian Language Support".

3) Pick Keyboards and Languages. Click Change Keyboards...

4) Ok, select Add... and choose Korean.

NOTE: If this is your FIRST foreign language, consider also changing the default input language to Korean. Don't worry! Korean mode lets you type alphanumeric ABCs too. If you don't set it as default, youll keep having to change it when you switch between programs. As such, in 99.9% of cases, a foreign language is the superior choice to English as default input. If you already have a second language such as French or Japanese installed, it's your choice which to set.

5) Watch in shock as a little bar pops up on screen, or down by the clock. If it's not by the clock, drag it there and it'll dock itself in happily. From now on, hit RIGHTALT to toggle between alphanumeric ABCs and hangul input. If you chose NOT to set Korean as your default language, use ALT+LEFTSHIFT toggle English[EN] to Korean[KO] (then hit RIGHTALT: see, I told you this was a worse way).

For the record, the bar will have EN/KO written, and on KO mode, A/가 and maybe a little Chinese character (ignore this unless it would deeply satisfy you to type the 辛 character you see on the spicy ramen packets). It may also have a tiny globe and pen OR a blue/red ying-yang symbol like on the Korean flag, depending on if you use XP or Vista/7.

6) Finally, go to GS25. That's the little convenience store down the road from you that sells you bus credit and those sausages people use as iPhone styli. Yeah, THAT one. No, really. Go there now. Buy the cutesy sheet of hangul stickers from the counter for under 1000 won. EVERY outlet I've seen in multiple cities has them. Stick them on your keys according to this:
http://www.emagasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/korean-keyboard.gif

NOTE: See those blue characters on the top row? Those are SHIFT characters. Hold shift to type them ala capital letters in English. Personally, that took me way too long and well too much frustration to discover, and ㅖ is stupidly common.

7) A winner is you. :D


Bonus tip for Mac and Windows XP users!
Go to Microsoft's website and search for the ClearType font package. It should contain 6 fonts. Install it. This was THE killer new feature in Windows Vista, yet its available to users of any OS, even Mac. Not quite as killer as it is for the Chinese or Japanese, but your hangul input will be ten times prettier at font sizes that are not exactly 12.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2010, 02:01:02 pm by Dayle »
More primary school colours and shapes activity ideas and resources than you'd ever need - here
Holy free educational fonts Batman!


  • Eribee
  • Adventurer

    • 62

    • November 09, 2009, 03:19:05 pm
    • South Korea
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2010, 01:34:16 am »
Hi Paul

Wow! That is a lot to be getting on with! I'll give it a try.

Can I just confirm that this will only set my keyboard and won't make my whole desktop Korean... I don't speak it very well yet!

I'm back in the UK, but I did buy some hangeul stickers before I left Korea, and even took a photo of a keyboard to check where to put them! But that website will probably be easier to see!

Thank you for your help

Erika


  • Paul
  • Featured Contributor

    • 2055

    • September 21, 2010, 10:28:58 pm
    • Seoul
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2010, 09:38:45 am »
Confirmed. Installing the pack will only make Korean readable (as opposed to []s), and setting the language bar up will only put it as an input option alongside standard English. All menus will remain in your chosen English dialect.

(Incidently, there's basically no need to ever change your OS language: even if you ever have to run weirdo software that requires country-specific Windows versions, even then theres a workaround involving just changing the clock and currency settings.)
More primary school colours and shapes activity ideas and resources than you'd ever need - here
Holy free educational fonts Batman!


  • Eribee
  • Adventurer

    • 62

    • November 09, 2009, 03:19:05 pm
    • South Korea
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2010, 05:23:03 am »
Thanks!

Finally got round to it!

좋아요!


  • wajowens
  • Veteran

    • 79

    • September 01, 2010, 01:08:08 pm
    • Daejeon
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2010, 03:09:52 pm »
incidentally, if anyone runs into the cd problem with windows xp, just browse to C:\I386\XJIS.NL_ and it'll use that file. if you don't have it, pm me and i'll email it to you (waygook won't let me post it)


  • Janitor
  • Moderator - LVL 2

    • 962

    • June 14, 2010, 02:01:32 pm
    • Ulsan
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2010, 03:34:24 pm »
For the mac users you can easily change the languages as stated above. The other thing that you might want to try is to assign a "hot key" to rapidly change from Korean to English and back again. I set up "ctrl-space" for mine and it is great.

Another thing is that on macs you can select "show keyboard window" with will bring up a window with all the characters on it that you can even click on, if you don't feel like typing.


  • Awesomo
  • Adventurer

    • 37

    • October 27, 2010, 08:15:09 am
    • Hongcheon, Korea
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2010, 03:53:07 pm »
More information here: http://esloutpost.com/article/get/1407491132/Typing%20in%20Another%20Language

I bought stickers for my friend's laptop keyboard at Yongsan. I have a separate keyboard for my own laptop. You can also use the onscreen keyboard found in Windows Accessories in the Start Menu.
ESL Outpost - Tools and Information for Teachers Living Abroad


  • andyfoggy
  • Super Waygook

    • 357

    • December 07, 2010, 12:11:55 pm
    • South Korea
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2010, 07:04:11 pm »
Paul, you are a star!! :D
i asked many korean coworkers and friends and the answer was always "i dont know"
thanks for the early Christmas prezzie, a computer with interchangable Korean and English
감사합니다!!


  • cocoinkorea
  • Fanatical Supporter!

    • 290

    • June 24, 2010, 08:59:40 am
    • New York, NY
Re: Korean for my laptop
« Reply #9 on: December 14, 2010, 07:17:10 pm »
I blogged about it here.. I just added mine last month ^^

http://cocoinkorea.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/free-korean-keyboard/
No Longer in Korea but still active!

Traveling: www.culturalxplorer .com
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