xiaojiang216 Posted January 18, 2006 at 08:13 PM Report Posted January 18, 2006 at 08:13 PM 大家好 I am wondering if I use MSN Hotmail to type an e-mail in Chinese... Will it be readable to a computer in 山东? My concern is that I sent an e-mail with MSN Hotmail in Chinese to my 老师, but she said that she just "random letters". I'm guessing that was the unicode she saw? I have sent e-mails in Chinese to other people using MSN Hotmail, and they really haven't had a problem. So when certain people cannot read my e-mails, is that my computer / e-mail provider's problem, or is it their computer / e-mail provider's problem? My 老师 has Chinese Language packs on her computer, but she could not read it... 很感谢! Quote
HashiriKata Posted January 18, 2006 at 09:29 PM Report Posted January 18, 2006 at 09:29 PM Even when the receiver has got the same software, the decoding does not necessarily take place automatically or correctly. One sometimes has to play with the encoding menu to get it read correctly. Quote
Lu Posted January 19, 2006 at 12:23 PM Report Posted January 19, 2006 at 12:23 PM And make sure you type it in the right code. For mainland China, that's GB2312. Quote
mr.stinky Posted January 19, 2006 at 02:30 PM Report Posted January 19, 2006 at 02:30 PM if you still can't get your email to display properly, you can cut 'n paste the 'random letters' here (Corrupted Chinese E-mail Fixer): http://www.mandarintools.com/email.html Quote
smalltownfart Posted January 19, 2006 at 06:43 PM Report Posted January 19, 2006 at 06:43 PM You will get problems when your default encoding isnt the same as hers, which means that one of you will see garbage for sure, so it can be a big mess. You can sort-of get around this problem by putting your text in a file instead of writing it directly in the email. Word docs work better than text files for this. Quote
kaichengbugong Posted January 20, 2006 at 06:46 AM Report Posted January 20, 2006 at 06:46 AM Surely if the text is written in Unicode, and the recipient's encoding is set to enable Unicode, there should be no problems? I can't say I'm an authority, but I'm surprised. Quote
smalltownfart Posted January 20, 2006 at 05:07 PM Report Posted January 20, 2006 at 05:07 PM Yes, if both users are on UTF-8, it would be cool. Heck, if everybody was using Unicode, we won't have this mess to deal with. Even web-based mail like Yahoo are not using UTF-8. Quote
xiaojiang216 Posted January 20, 2006 at 09:56 PM Author Report Posted January 20, 2006 at 09:56 PM I feel more secure attaching a Word document, but is that annoying? Especially to a 副校长? Is downloading a Word file from some stupid kid (I'm referring to myself here) be too extraneous? 很感谢 Quote
smalltownfart Posted January 20, 2006 at 11:20 PM Report Posted January 20, 2006 at 11:20 PM A blank Word 2003 doc is about 23K, just how much email are you going to type?! As long as you don't include images, it's not a problem. Even if she is using dialup, it will be a snap to download Quote
xiaojiang216 Posted January 21, 2006 at 06:09 PM Author Report Posted January 21, 2006 at 06:09 PM If I were to go ahead and send him an e-mail, and by chance he only saw: aslfjds, aslkfjsa;l! aslkdjfas;ljfs.. a;lsdkjf;lkasjf;lds Stuff like that... Would he know that it was an encoding problem? Or would he think that I'm messing with him? Quote
smalltownfart Posted February 1, 2006 at 04:58 PM Report Posted February 1, 2006 at 04:58 PM For those interested, I've had success recently corresponding in Chinese using gmail accounts. ie both sender and receiver must be on gmail. This is bcos gmail uses UTF-8 by default. I love google! If the mail gets routed though Yahoo or MSN/Hotmail is involved, the encoded characters get messed up, as expected. Quote
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