HOW TO ENABLE日本語 ON YOUR MAC AND INTRO TO KOTOERI TYPING RULES (by Brian D.)

1.      Open system preferences.

2.      Click the “Languages & Text” icon.

3.      Click the “Input Sources” tab.

4.      In the list on the left, scroll down to “Kotoeri”

a.      There will be a「あ」icon. Click on it.

b.      Check all the boxes. (Except Ainu. You probably don’t need that one.)

5.      To enable Japanese typing in Word, Pages, or Safari ect,

a.      Click the flag icon in the Mac OS X menu bar

b.      Select Japanese. (a Japanese flag should now show in the menu bar)

                                                    i.     Don’t forget to switch back to American English (the US Flag icon) when you’re not typing for Japanese class. (Your ENG papers will look pretty strange, you’ll know why)

6.      Type in the text entry window in romanji and watch as the miracle of modern technology converts your single bit romaji typing into double-bit Japanese fonts.

a.      “a” will become あ , “ka” will become  か, ect.

b.      “hirugohan” will become “ひるごはん”、and by hitting the space bar a dropdown menu should show up beneath the hiragana word and allow you to select “昼御飯” kanji.

c.      Hitting enter locks in the selection so that further typing doesn’t change the previously selected word or phrase so that you can continue typing.Z