Do any other modern languages apart from Chinese use character, ideograms or hieroglyphics?
366495
Japanese partly uses Chinese characters (which in Japanese are called Kanji) and partly uses two syllabaries called Katakana and Hiragana.\n\nOther languages of Chinese origin other than Mandarin Chinese also use Chinese characters (e.g. Cantonese, Hakka).  These are often all called "Chinese" but in fact their spoken forms are actually quite different and often not mutually intelligable.\n\nVietnamese and Korean used to use Chinese characters until quite recently, but do not any more.  Vietnamese now has a latin-based alphabet and Korean now just uses a Korean-specific syllabary (they are *not* ideograms - they directly reflect the sounds of the language).\n\nAlso (to correct something written above) Thai has its own alphabet - that's not ideograms either.\n\nAs far as I know, no other ideograms other than Chinese characters are used in languages spoken today (and strictly speaking, they're not all "ideograms" either!)
644690
Of course it is.  I mean, it's just like how J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books based on the movies; but she decided to add a bunch of other stuff that wasn't included in the movies.  The same thing for the alphabet--someone decided to sing a song, and then write down the letters to form the alphabet. Um...no...\n\nThe Phoenicians made a written alphabet for their spoken languages as a means to keep records of their trading.  Our alphabet and the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Cyrillic and many other languages too.\n\nEdit: \nTo the person above me: it was based on Latin, yes, but where do you think Latin was based on?
765484
Chinese - over 80,000 characters\nHawaiian - 13 Characters
143594
You are asking about writing it in Japanese. That's impossible to answer because we cannot type in Japanese characters.
739997
newspapers are mostly written in Kanji.  There are three kinds that they use by Japanese people.  Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.  They use all three together sometimes. They use Katakana in reference to western words.  Not all japanese people can read Kanji as it's the hardest one.
154713
While people derived from a common ancestor, be it Adam and Eve or monkeys (or both!), they split into different regions and developed on their own.  That's why English, French, Spanish, German and Italian use the same Aramaic alphabet and Slavs use the Cyrillic.  Asians don't use an alphabet, but instead use a system of symbols to depict what is being communicated.
116568
In China - people use something called "pinyin" which is basically romanized Chinese or Chinese sounded out with English letters. In Taiwan, there's "zhu yin fu hao" also known as "bo po me fe." In Northern China, very few people know zhu yin fu hao. Currently in China, more and more people are learning pin yin. \n\nIn some ways, each symbol has a meaning. These are called "pang" - like if its related to your hands - there will be a hand "pang" or "shou zi pang." Most words are constructed with a "pang" which usually is on the left or on top and then the rest of the character.
9822
The Japanese writing system is used in Japan - Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Normal Japanese sentences are written with kanji as the base, and hiragana tends to be used for verb endings and particles. Katakana is used both as italics and for foreign words.
2934
Spanish, not only for the reasons given by others, but for two others: it's a Latin language (so you have a good basis for French, Italian, etc.) and it's logical in its spelling (unlike French, which is very arbitrary.) If you're learning a language as a start towards learning more and to use in the US and Europe, it seems like the obvious choice.\n\nIf on the other hand, you want a mental challenge, Mandarin is so unlike any Western language in syntax, tones, etc. that you'll 'stretch' your mind a great deal. It will also prove increasingly useful as China moves more and more to a capitalist model.
365276
There are two main ways of writing japanese, hiragana and katakana not including the hiroglyphics/picture words. It is a pretty complex language unless you only wish to speak it but I would advise you order a book and CD or take a course somewhere.
753897
ni hao-Mandarin Chinese\nJambo-Swahili\nHola-Spanish\n(Buenos dias=good morning\nBuenos noches=good evening\nBuenos tardes=good night)\nKonichiwa-Japanese\nHello-English (lol)
296818
These are two different sets of Chinese characters.  Simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, whereas the Traditional (more complex) characters are used in Taiwan and in Hong Kong.\n\nThe simplified characters are mostly similar but reduced in complexity - usually by reducing the number of (pen) strokes needed to write the character.\n\nThese are not different languages - only different ways of writing the same language.
49168
Duh! In script? Arabic, Cyrillic, more......\nIn type: Garamond, Times New Roman, Arial..... tens of thousands more.\n\nIt's not clear what you're asking. Maybe the shotgun approach of the other answerers and me will help you out.
161245
Chinese is a tonal language. This means that tone are used to distinguish words from each other.
224507
The art of calligraphy is making writing look beautiful and decorative. Some countries will use the same Roman-based lettering as UK or US, others will have their own writing forms (like Arabic, Hebrew, Greek)
3584
Although there are specialized keyboards, for the most part Japanese and Chinese just use regular keyboards that uses software to change keystrokes into thier respective languages - for example, typing "KA" on a Japanese system will result in the Japanese hiragana "ka", etc.
749468
You'll find some at this website:\nhttp://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Temple/1219/mandarin_index.html