In this chapter, I will take Chinese as an example to show you how to read foreign languages. I will also list some sources for other languages. Chinese Text Formats Chinese language is very different from English. Chinese language has square characters that consist of several strokes. One character may have different pronunciations that represent different meanings.
Some characters have different meanings but pronunciations are same.
Although Chinese language has letter spelling system called Pinyin to help pronounce a character, it is very difficult to understand by reading Pinyin without characters. In addition, as the historic reason, two versions of Chinese are used in the world. One is the old version or Fanti , which is used in Taiwan and Hongkong or other parts outside of Mainland China. The another one is simplified version or Jianti , which is used in Mainland China by more than 1 billion people. Basically, there are two different formats or standards in Chinese Computing.