1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: providing, via a touch display of a touch computing device, a first layout of English characters; receiving, via the touch display of the touch computing device, spot input from a user of the touch computing device, the spot input indicating selection of a vowel from the first layout of English characters; providing, via the touch display of the touch computing device, a second layout of English characters based on the spot input, the second layout of English characters being centered about the selected vowel and including a plurality of characters based on and including the selected vowel, the second layout of English characters being different than the first layout of English characters, the second layout of English characters being configured such that the user can input a remainder of all possible multi-character compound vowels beginning with the selected vowel using a single slide input; receiving, via the touch display of the touch computing device, slide input from the user from the selected vowel to a selected character of the second layout of English characters; determining, at the touch computing device, a string of English characters based on the selected vowel, the selected character, and the second layout of English characters, the string of English characters including one or more other English characters of the second layout of English characters along a path of the slide input, the string of English characters representing a vowel of a Chinese character; generating, at the touch computing device, a Chinese character based on the string of characters; and displaying, via the touch display of the touch computing device, the Chinese character.