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Features articles of interest on language translation and localization, culture, language technology and other related topics. The goal of the Global Advisor Newsletter is to inform and entertain.

Other Editions

Third Edition

The World's Languages and Writing Systems (Continued)

Featured in this issue:

	The Languages and Writing Systems of East Asia
	The Japanese Internet
	German - The Extraordinary Length of Some of its Words

The Japanese Internet

Have you stumbled upon web sites that feature Japanese pages while surfing the Net? Were you able to actually see the Japanese characters? If the answer is "No" the following information will interest you.

To view Japanese you need to have the proper computing environment, including a browser capable of displaying double-byte characters. Here is a quick summary of what is required:

Japanese Computing Environment

Encoding Methods

Most computers use the ASCII standard. However, the Japanese language, requires many more than the 128 (or 256) possible codes enabled by this standard. Thus, special encoding methods have been developed, such as:

	JIS - Japanese Industrial Standard
	Shift-JIS
	EUC - Extended UNIX Code
	Unicode

JIS - Japanese Industrial Standard

Recommended for e-mail, because it uses only seven bits of each byte. It is compatible with the Internet translation mail message, which often strips or ignores the eighth bit.)

Shift - JIS

More efficient and most popular with Windows-based PCs and Macs. It is based on an eight-bit encoding pattern. However, its limited coding space omits more than 5,500 of the least used kanji characters. Also, e-mail messages sent in Shift-JIS code are often unreadable.

(EUC) Extended UNIX Code

Used to process Japanese on UNIX-based systems. As in the case of Shift-JIS, e-mail messages sent in this code are often unreadable.

Unicode

Uses the full 16-bit codes, which enlarges the number of characters that can be represented on your screen. Another advantage is that it handles almost every language. It is gaining popularity in the computing industry.

Operating Systems

The Japanese language requires the proper operating system, such as DOS/V or Win/V for the PC and Kanji Talk for the Mac. If you are running Windows 95, you may have to resort to a dual boot system, if you have a need to toggle between Windows 95 and Win/V. Japanese fonts are also necessary.

Browsers

Until Mosaic, which was developed at the University of Illinois, browsers displayed only text. Mosaic was the first to integrate color and graphics and is at the base of today's most popular multilingual browsers, such as Netscape (1.1N and later versions) and Accent Multilingual Mosaic. To view Japanese on the WWW you need one of these graphical browsers.

E-mail

To send and receive messages in Japanese through an Internet Access Provider, you need a communications software application like Eudora Pro-J for Windows or Eudora-J for Mac.

The Japanese Net

Notwithstanding the high cost of access and the predominance of English as "the" language of the Internet, Japan ranks sixth in the world in the number of computers connected to the Internet. That number is increasing by 40% annually. The number of Japanese who surf the Web is expected to exceed 10 million by the end of the century.

German - The Extraordinary Length of Some of its Words

In an article about the German language, Mark Twain, the famous American writer, commented on the extraordinary length of some German words, which he called "alphabetical processions marching majestically across the page." He used the following examples to illustrate his point:

	Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen
	Waffenstillstandsunterhandlungen

To translate the first term, he broke it into its components and worked on each one individually as follows:

	General: General
	Staats: State
	Verordneten: Delegates
	Versammlungen: Assembly

After assigning an English equivalent to each component, Mark Twain concluded that the best English meaning for this word was : General Representative Meetings.