Colemak is designed for English, nobody denies that. That depends of how much you should type is English vs Pinyin. I'm Russian, but I type in Russian from my smartphone mostly where I use native йцукен layout, and I use fonetic Colemak at computer, but not often. Having different layouts for different languages is ok, I do not think you should modify Colemak to make it equally good (or equally bad?) for English and pinyin.

Thanks for your ideas, I am not familiar with AltGr.
now  I got a solution, I just go to learn a new input method,  I must be out of my mind, first I switch to a new keyboard layout, before experienced, I use it to type new input method...

Here is what I made, I copied an existing input schema to Colemak with a little tweaking.

I must be crazy, type like a baby...

Wow it's nice to see another Chinese user here!
I'm also native Chinese speaker switching to Colemak recently, just reaching the 50~60 wpm mark now. For me the added complexity is that I'm switching to an ErgoDox EZ at the same time, and DreymaR's extended layer gave me so many ideas that I just HAD TO play around with it way too much:) Currently I'm using a heavily optimized layout with 2 extended layers (http://configure.ergodox-ez.com/keyboar … xjxvo/edit), it's pretty crazy, might be the 50th revision or something like that.
If you don't consider all the specific features or constraints of the ErgoDox, such as limited number of keys, thumbkeys, dual-function keys etc., all my letter positions are just plain Colemak-DBGHK mode.
The experience I had with typing Chinese (quanpin) is actually quite interesting - it's far more fluid than I expected, I found that I don't mind the vowel rolls at all, quite on the contrary! I actually managed to get back to reasonable speed earlier in Chinese that I did in English, but I guess that's because of the pauses in selecting words account for so much in Chinese input that the "raw" speed matter less...
@Sensui: do you feel it's worth it to start learning ShuangPin with Colemak? I briefly considered the option but that would require me to go through a lot of trial and error to find meaningful layout, so it might be a bit too much for me to stomach. What's your experience so far?

Hi DreymaR,

really great to have your input!
Not sure about all the terminology anymore, what is the Curl(DH) mod? And did I correctly refer to my current one as DBGHK?;)
OK, let me also explain a bit the rationales behind my layout.
First of all, on layer 0, the keys under V and M are my temporary layer switches, hold the key down (left and right thumb) and everything switches to layer 1 and 2 respectively. So no repeaters, sorry;)

One important factor in designing my layout is the balancing of hands. There are things I want to be able to do single-handedly, such as the F2-F11 (for Total commander/Midnight commander) can easily be access by left hand only, and the numpad can be accessed by using right hand only.

But when I'm really writing stuff, I have both my hands on the keyboard anyway, so spreading things out would be more efficient, that's why I copied your Extend layer - Ctrl/Shft + NAV keys on the home row is pure genius and such an eye opener, I'm forever in your debts for that!

You're quite right in pointing out that my layout might not be the most efficient for Excel work - that's a compromise with the above factor in mind. And it's better than one might think, as switching layers on the fly with both thumbs has already become second nature for me (and killing me when I'm on a different keyboard>:().
I don't use numbers a lot, mostly when I'm inputing Chinese (1/2/3 are covered by space/lshft/rshft in the input method, so I mostly start with 4 and above).

I also agree that my symbol layer is anything but "intuitive", it took me ages to reach this setting, which finally feels kinda natural (and logical, go figure) to me. My most used one is just the left home row, anything else is just a bonus.

I make extensive usage of the dual-function feature of ErgoDox, which means a key is a modifier while held down, but sends a normal key while tapped on. For example, my T and N (left/right index) also work as CTRL, it gives me all kinds of freedom for shortcuts. Think C+S, C+W, C+Z etc., one can easily get creative here. Sometimes I have so many ways for the same shortcuts it's almost dazzling:D
Sadly, I tried the same with the Shift but it doesn't work that well, because we need Shift WAY more often than we think and one timing mistake here can revert a lot of efficiency gains, so in the end I ended up using plain Shift keys.

Since I like to throw Windows around a lot in both Win10 and Linux i3wm, you see the WIN key and the WIN+SHFT as combined modifier all over the place to accomodate a lot of fancy shortcuts.

When I first received the ErgoDox, I changed layout around 10 times or more a day:D Now I've gone 2-3 weeks without major revisions anymore, so I guess I'm more or less settled. But my biggest challenge is having a soft version of something resembling my layout for my new laptop, for the times where I HAVE TO work on my lap without the ErgoDox!

By the way, how would I change your PKL files (currently using a modified version of vk_TarmakCurlK5Colemak_ISO) so that the left Alt can work as Extend instead of CAPSLOCK?
I tried to just change the setting in the layout.ini, but it seems that makes ALT to work as BOTH ALT and EXTEND at the same time?
For the soft layer, I think replicating the 1st layer is enough, I have a numpad on the laptop anyway so that'd be redundant.

Thanks a lot, it works fine after the remap.
I think I've hijacked this thread long enough, hope the OP wouldn't mind, I'll keep this the place for Chinese related questions and put my further comment to your Big Bag thread!