International character sets such as Chinese and Arabic for domain names are
still a year or more away, but one company has developed a workaround allowing
Chinese users to send and receive emails in their own language.
Chinglish.com
has introduced what it claims to be the world's first email system allowing
users to address recipients with Chinese characters or a combination of
characters and letters.
The Chinese character element of the application only works between Chinglish
account holders, but bilingual account management has been introduced to enable
users to continue receiving emails from other email providers.
Chinglish chief executive Marius van Bergen said: "Most non-Chinese
businessmen in China know from experience how important it is to have a Chinese
name. That is why they have business cards with their Chinese name on the
reverse side.
"To them, Chinglish email offers unparalleled opportunities in the
trust-building process and in showing commitment to China and its culture."
The very first email message from China was sent in 1986, but it took another
decade for the internet to become available to the Chinese public.
The internet being a Western invention, email protocol was originally
developed for the Roman alphabet.
The
Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers tested international character
sets in October last year, and hopes to add character sets such as Chinese and
Arabic by 2008.
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