I thought this was an interesting one.
BBC News - Why talking-to-text has taken off in China
"Anyone who has ever written in Chinese on a computer, or composed a text message on their phone in that language, knows the typing process is not nearly as simple as in English.
In most languages using a Roman alphabet, you directly type the letters that make up a word.
But in Chinese, you type in the Roman letters that approximate the sound of a particular ideogram. Then, depending on the software used, a list of possible ideograms pops up, and the user chooses the correct one."