Thanks, OrangeFoodie...
Originally posted by orangefoodie
WHoohoo! Someone else who's interested in both Korean AND Japanese!
You rock 
The thing is, it'll prolly take a custom job to outfit the keyboard with japanese/korean keylayouts - the models sold in Japan that have Kanji on them are exclusive to Japan, as far as I know. How or where this custom job might be done, I have no idea.
(Visit apple.co.jp to oogle over them )
From personal experience, there's hardly any Mac presence in Korea (for example, apple.co.kr goes to some random store selling jackets and such). Finding any sort of Mac sold natively in Korea would make me jump up and down in happiness. Or something.
Really, if you can bear the ugliness, and strive to be able to touch-type (or at least type without looking), little sticker doohickeys on your keys work nice, along with a good typing instructor program - then you won't really need the letters. Strictly speaking, there's no difference in the positioning of the keys between Western and East Asian, so...
it all depends on where you want to go with it
It sounds like you're saying that there isn't such a big demand for Apple in Korea. I've never been there so, I'm guessing by what you said that PCs rule there.
I guess the idea of little doohickey stickers would be fine. I'd love to be able to use a powerbook to deal with Asia in the future (if I ever brush up on my language skills, that is)... and figure that as the internet continues to bring communities together that we need to learn more about the East and that means being able to read what's going on in Japanese, Korean, Chinese -- just to be competitive with them (and inspired by them as well!)
If Apple is going to create world class notebooks, I would think that catering to this international business point of view would become an increasingly more important part of their strategy. Right now it doesn't seem to be. None of the other PC makers seems to realize this either. But as more people strive to bump up their educational skills simply to remain marketable in this economy, I would think this would eventually change.
I was talking with a Professor from USC's business school the other day and he was telling me that there is now a disproportionate number of international students in the graduate school -- most are bilingual and most will be competing for the same jobs as mono-lingual Americans (many of us) in the United States. That alone, I would think, would be a good reason to start taking notice of these facts.
Hopefully, if there is Japanese and Korean programs for the OSX then I will be able to learn how to type in both languages and to be able to network abroad with those countries as well. from the entertainment point of view, I know that a lot of great films are still being made in Japan, and now in Vietnam and Korea. The Korean film industry is really making some impressive strides right now, so, who knows?
Thanks! Hopefully, a custom job won't be such a big deal. I'll go check out those websites you gave me. Thanks again!
