When keying in kanji, do typos often happen in newspapers?

[torasan]

http://datagenetics.com/blog/november42012/index.html

so for example, if a typist at a Japanese newspaper or magazine or blog or website is KEYING in kanji, and a character
that calls for 12 strokes just get 11 or maybe 13 by mistake, does the proofreader CATCH the mistake, an atomic typo, before
it goes to print or not very often. Does it hapen often in newspapers with kanji being keyed in and the kanji ends up being READ
the wrong way, and perhaps in a very very wrong, even opposite way?

[torasan]

Nick BErry, of DataGEnetics, above, explains

Sloppy Typing

If youe anything like me, you sometimes get “fat-fingers” when typing; When aiming for a particular letter key, you miss it and hit one of the key neighbors instead. (It especially easy to do on mobile devices with their tiny keyboards).

Often the resulting word is garbagd <- See what I did there?

But sometimes the bogus letter results in the creation of a different, legitimately spelled, word. For instance, if I was trying to type the word FOOD, and my finger slipped on the first letter and landed just to the right, I end up typing GOOD.

Taken to the limit, if I missed every letter in the word FOOD by one key, I could spell the word GILE, or BIKE or TIPS … plus many others. In total, it possible to make 68 English words whilst trying to type FOOD (if you also include words where sometimes you hit the correct letter in the correct place!)

Using the database of words I compiled for the Hangman Analysis, I ran a query to select all the words that could be created by taking a word and attempting to substitute each letter in the word with any of the letters surrounding it on a QWERTY keyboard (plus the correct letter itself).

Out of the 172,806 words in the dictionary file I used, a total of 88,669 (51.3%) words can make other words with the replacement of one or more letters with their touching neighbors.


Atomic Typos

Editors classify these kinds of typo (typography) errors as atomic errors because they are not found by basic spell-checking software. Often they are very simple small ‘atomic’ level errors, but they have a potential to make big changes to the meaning of sentences. (There are other types of atomic errors not covered by this article, such as the unintentional switching of adjacent letters in a word e.g. a transposition that changes UNCLEAR into NUCLEAR.

[matsuki]

You've seen their Engrish...what makes you think their kanji usage is any better?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

what makes you think their kanji usage is any better?

They have four different styles of writing...

[matsuki]

what makes you think their kanji usage is any better?

They have four different styles of writing...

so I am reminded every time one of them goes on and on about how difficult their language is. The fact that 2 of them can be memorized within a day and another is nothing more than romanizing the pronunciation however you feel like that day and tis less impressive....but then you're left with their bastardized Chinese characters that they can't seem to be able to read themselves half the time.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

what makes you think their kanji usage is any better?

They have four different styles of writing...

so I am reminded every time one of them goes on and on about how difficult their language is. The fact that 2 of them can be memorized within a day and another is nothing more than romanizing the pronunciation however you feel like that day and tis less impressive....but then you're left with their bastardized Chinese characters that they can't seem to be able to read themselves half the time.

Ah, so...

But, hah...they have all that and it fits into four (4) distinct seasons, too. Stick that up yer pipe of peace and smoke it!!!!

[matsuki]

what makes you think their kanji usage is any better?

They have four different styles of writing...

so I am reminded every time one of them goes on and on about how difficult their language is. The fact that 2 of them can be memorized within a day and another is nothing more than romanizing the pronunciation however you feel like that day and tis less impressive....but then you're left with their bastardized Chinese characters that they can't seem to be able to read themselves half the time.

Ah, so...

But, hah...they have all that and it fits into four (4) distinct seasons, too. Stick that up yer pipe of peace and smoke it!!!!

The local lemurs seem to enjoy smoking my peace pipe but they best stay away from my wampum!

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

The local lemurs seem to enjoy smoking my peace pipe but they best stay away from my wampum!

I'd add they'd be best advised avoiding your totem pole, too...

[sublight]

what makes you think their kanji usage is any better?

They have four different styles of writing...

...which they rotate according to the season. It's all part of the wabi-sabi that creates a meri-hari sense of fuwa-fuwa.

[wagyl]

Serious answer:

Yeah, typos happen. I am not completely up with latest trends, but it seems that proofreading is the first thing to go in English language press, likely to be the same in Japan. It might not be at the same state as English language press today, but with the economic pressure on newspapers here similar to that overseas, I think it will be trending the same direction.


The answer I want to give:

What a noob question!!! Especially the comment about 11 or 12 or 13 strokes being inputted. And does the secretarial pool exist anywhere in the world these days?


The only other possible answer, which if you think about it for a millisecond is not very likely:

No, never. There is never a typographical error or mistaken character in any Japanese newspaper. Those proofreaders are really on the ball. It is, frankly, a miracle. The West, with their piffling 26 letter set, could learn a thing or two from these maestros.

[torasan]

Serious answer:

Yeah, typos happen. I am not completely up with latest trends, but it seems that proofreading is the first thing to go in English language press, likely to be the same in Japan. It might not be at the same state as English language press today, but with the economic pressure on newspapers here similar to that overseas, I think it will be trending the same direction.


The answer I want to give:

What a noob question!!! Especially the comment about 11 or 12 or 13 strokes being inputted. And does the secretarial pool exist anywhere in the world these days?


The only other possible answer, which if you think about it for a millisecond is not very likely:

No, never. There is never a typographical error or mistaken character in any Japanese newspaper. Those proofreaders are really on the ball. It is, frankly, a miracle. The West, with their piffling 26 letter set, could learn a thing or two from these maestros.

smile