How do the chinese type on a computer keyboard? they have over 20,000 symbols in their language...?

I think how it works is that the language is broken into sounds and they type it out phonetically.

There is special software that allows normal looking keyboards to produce thousands of characters used in Chinese.

This is how i type in chinese. Let's say i want to type 'how are you' in chinese. i use microsoft new phonetic ime 2002 that came with windows xp english edition. How are you = ni3 hao3 = 你好

The Chinese do use computers, text messaging, and other forms of electronic communication. They don't live in the stone age. "You use a piece of software called an "input method editor," which allows conventional-looking keyboards to produce the thousands of characters used in written Chinese. There's no standard system, though, so two Chinese keyboards may not look exactly the same and they may not function in the same way. In the Peoples' Republic of China, most computer users type out their Chinese in transliteration, using the standard Roman alphabet keys on a QWERTY keyboard. To generate a character, you type out its sound according to the same spelling system—called Pinyin—that represents the name of China's capital with the word "Beijing." The computer automatically converts the Pinyin spelling to the correct Chinese characters on the screen."

They use english.

alwaysmoose is right

Wow, that was a good question, and some really cool answers.