Microsoft IME?

Japanese Language Kanji
#1

Hi all, I am using Microsoft’s Japanese IME in Windows to type Japanese. I am new to this and I am finding that the hiragana conversion to kanji is giving really bad suggestions, am I doing something wrong?

For example if I type こう and then hit space for suggestions, 口 does not appear until the 38th suggestion in the list! I realize there are many meanings for こう but 口 is a very basic kanji, surely this can’t be ordering by frequency!

How “intelligent” is the Microsoft IME and will it get better with use? Is it good at figuring out words from sentence context or are you constantly struggling to pick the right kanji?

Thanks!

#2

i got google ime, been pretty happy with it for going on a decade now.

2 Likes
#3

Oh, very cool, this is not just a browser plugin by installs in Windows?

#4

くち is pretty common but I don’t really see it with compound kanji that often, so 38th sounds pretty okay to me.

#5

Noo, Google evil, don’t use their products :smiley: Is there any functional difference? I’m pretty happy with the Microsoft IME but most of the time I’m on Linux and IBUS anthy.

1 Like
#6

nope, it’s a complete ime.

#7

there’s not much good competition :wink:

#8

Thanks! Any idea if the Google IME sends everything you type back to Google? I’d love to try something different but I know Google is pretty bad for privacy. :slight_smile:

#9

It’s Google, of course it does. Same policy as with all their other tools. Maybe not exactly what you type but meta- and usagedata definitely. They have a pretty extensive privacy policy in which they explain it all.

#10

Ok well thanks both for the suggestions and info. :slight_smile:

#11

You can usually opt-out of sending Google information. :eyes:

1 Like
#12

I feel like you’re going to have this issue with any IME, simply because こう is one of the most common on’yomi for kanji.

If you want to type 口 on its own, write くち

If you want to type 口 as part of a larger word, type that whole word in one go. For example じんこう = 人口.

10 Likes
#13

Some, but not really.

#14

Yeah, if all you want is 口, then こう will always be an inefficient way to type it.

2 Likes
#15

Thanks. As a beginner it’s pretty hard to know which reading(s) to use, WaniKani doesn’t really tell me which to use if I just want to use the word “on its own”, it just gives me all the possible readings. I suppose I’ll figure this out with time. :slight_smile:

#16

‾\_(ツ)_/‾

#17

When you reach the vocabulary card for the term, that’s the reading you’ll use when you see the kanji in real life.

5 Likes
#18

Oh thank you! That makes sense!

#19

That’s an opt-out thing, one of the first things to uncheck.

#20

I also use the Microsoft IME. If it’s a common reading, I press spacebar to bring up the kanji list, then click the little arrow with the mouse to show the entire list at once.

Actually, Wanikani does explain this during lessons when relevant kanji/vocabulary is being learned.

As a rule of thumb: If its a single kanji, and you want to name the kanji itself, you use on-yomi. If its a single kanji, but is a word, use kun-yomi.

The kanji 口 is read as こう. (on-yomi)
The word 口 is read as くち. (kun-yomi)

I find that in my lessons, I rarely need to refer to a kanji by name. As a beginner, if you are reading and come across a stand-alone kanji, it’s kun-yomi.