system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Eli5 how Chinese language is typed in

I was watching over the shoulders of some girls, on a train, texting in a Chinese language. I realised I never really thought how it might be done. It looked as though they would write it phonetically in the Latin alphabet and then choose from a menu that popped up.

They were very quick but it seemed incredibly convoluted. Do you have to learn a European alphabet as you learn to use computers and phones? What particular European alphabet is used?

Is there another way it is imputed without the Latin alphabet?

Edit: Thanks everyone. Very interesting. I can see why it’s actually a neat system.
gpt
It is indeed a phonetic QWERTY keyboard where you type the sound you want to convey and then choose the word. The most common words with each pronunciation are displayed first, so it's easier.

This is simple to do because Chinese has the Pinyin system, which translates their sounds to the latin alphabet, for accessibility. This system is taught there as well. So you just type what you want to say using pinyin and it will send the actual Chinese characters.