kotoeri

ok so i just started using kotoeri but i noticed that if i type in something like lets say "wa" this comes out てち
i know that isnt "wa" is there any kind of chart that i can read to learn where the kanjis are placed on my keyboard? Ive been lookin for 2 hours and had no luck.

If its not imprinted on your keyboard then you can compare to pictures from the internet. Any reason you're using kotoeri instead of romaji input though?

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGGL_enJP237JP237&q...

I just figure typing in hiragana will help me learn it faster.
i mean yea i can spell out a word in romaji but that wont practice my hiragana.

if i have a chart printed out i can use that our i can just use another thing on my mac( doing this way requires looking at each kanji and clicking the right one where as i want to practice spelling them to reinforce them in my memory.)

If you input "w" and "a," yes those keys correspond to "て" and "ち" on kana keyboard.

If you want to practice using this kana input method (which not too many Japanese do, I believe), you would want to get a Japanese keyboard so that the kana would be printed on the keys... it would be too cumbersome to look up each letter!

I see. Seems a little roundabout to me, but if it works for you then go for it. Personally I learned hiragana and katakana by writing them out a few dozen times. It only took a few days with each system for me to get them down that way.

Some more quick tips for Japanese input methods with OS X. This works for 10.4, 10.5. Probably works for 10.3 as well, but I haven't verified this. Note that in OS X 10.5, there is a fair amount of Koeteri input method help in English accessible by choosing 'Koeteri Help' in the Input menu. In previous systems (10.4 and older), this help was only available in Japanese. Now for the tips...

If you type something in Japanese using Romaji input (big 'A' selected in the input menu droplet) and while the input still has a dark black underline i.e. turn on Romaji input: Command-Space , you can switch modes between katakana, hiragana, expanded roman characters, and roman characters by holding down Option-Tab. Thus, typing in a phrase while in Japanese mode, the katakana version of the English word 'support' (i.e. Apple Support -- sapo-to), you can change modes as long as the text is underlined

I found this website through various links. you type in romaji and it converts to either hiragana or katakana. It also has a ton of info about grammar and sentence strusture which is very useful.
with sayjack.com you just type in romaji, it convert, copy and paste