Multilingual text entry and viewing

[FluffyDawg]

I am trying to do multilingual work on my Gentoo system, but I can't even get started. I see hints, but can't find a full explanation of what to do. I'd like o be able to switch between English/Chinese/Vietnamese and others, as well as be able to view text in any language. I seem to have the viewing part OK - despite the curious lack of fonts for central Asian languages, most of the languages appear to be covered.

If anyone knows how I can set up multilingual typing, please let me know. I have set up Gnome and KDE, and could not find anything obvious. I may be spoiled, since I am accustomed to Win2K/WinXP, which have excellent multilingual support, but I'll adjust. Pointers are welcomed.