| Număr de pagini: < [1 2] | How are your typing skills? Inițiatorul discuției: Henry Hinds
|
|---|
Henry Hinds 
Statele Unite
Local time: 11:57
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
INIŢIATORUL SUBIECTULUI In Memoriam | Bad typing but good enough | May 2, 2008 |
Back in my day typing was for the girls, we boys mostly fooled around with pulling engines and transmissions out of cars, busting tires and the like. I just wondered how some of you have done. It appears that some do quite well, and many female.
Yet I can remember a high school assembly where we were treated to the spectacle of a typist who could do 350 words a minute, and that was on a manual typewriter! The typist was a man... oh, how I wished I could do that!
In my o... See more Back in my day typing was for the girls, we boys mostly fooled around with pulling engines and transmissions out of cars, busting tires and the like. I just wondered how some of you have done. It appears that some do quite well, and many female.
Yet I can remember a high school assembly where we were treated to the spectacle of a typist who could do 350 words a minute, and that was on a manual typewriter! The typist was a man... oh, how I wished I could do that!
In my own case I have always known that my typing is not great, but it has always been fast enough considering that translating requires a bit more thought than copying. Despite fat fingers and clumsy hands I can churn out a lot of work.
After all, I am a much better typist than Carlos Fuentes. I don't know whether you can find anything on the Net on his typing style, but check it out, you'll have fun! ▲ Collapse
| | | |
- and like Henry, I suspect it's not going to get any better.
Now my handwriting is different. I'm left handed, was taught individually to write, and made to promise always to write nicely... I loved the Marion Richardson exercises, and learned to do calligraphy carefully and slowly with my right hand. Not the elaborate styles, but plain lettering. I won prizes for it at school! I would have been fine before Gutenberg and Caxton & co. But the Qwerty keyboard is a total misunderstand... See more - and like Henry, I suspect it's not going to get any better.
Now my handwriting is different. I'm left handed, was taught individually to write, and made to promise always to write nicely... I loved the Marion Richardson exercises, and learned to do calligraphy carefully and slowly with my right hand. Not the elaborate styles, but plain lettering. I won prizes for it at school! I would have been fine before Gutenberg and Caxton & co. But the Qwerty keyboard is a total misunderstanding, and really handicaps people like me.
I am not musical, and piano lessons were a pain for all concerned, so we very soon dropped them.
Typing was a pain too, but I was not allowed to give that up. I learned to proof read and type very slowly with two fingers on each hand.
The only bright point in the story was when I started on WordPerfect 3 and progressed to 5.1 (those were the days!). I could use the delete key instead of Tippex and all the other hassle. So I learned to touch type, sort of, then use the spell checker and then proof read... and get acceptable results. I really practised a lot at that stage!
The three extra letters in the Danish alphabet set me back. (They are all on the right side of the keyboard, typed with the right little finger, the most useless of all in my case...) Practising doesn't help any more.
Then came Trados, and the constant movement back and forth to open the next segment means I make typos all ove rthe place and ther eis nothing I can do aboput it except typw painfully slowly. Evne then it dowsn't help much, as you can see.
* * * * *
Coordination is just not my strong point.
But I think before I write, keep trying, proof read like mad... and manage somehow.
 ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not just practice - rote practice | May 2, 2008 |
Clarisa Moraña wrote:
I decided that to improve my income, I had to improve my typing skills. I bought a book, a typing course. And started to follow it
asdf
asdf
Me toooooo! Except in my case it was my father who decided I needed the improvement and who gave me pages out of his old book from the 50s or 60s.
Since I didn't stick with it to the very end, it still took me a couple of years to get up to speed, but now I absolutely whiz through.
I can't help but wonder if people who claim that they'll "never get better" have ever actually just sat down and dedicated 20 mins a day to this old-fashioned rote training. I swear it works wonders.
| | | | NMR (X)
Franţa
Local time: 19:57
din franceză în olandeză
+ ...
| In my mother's classroom | May 2, 2008 |
I was fourteen years old. My mother was a teacher and taught secretary skills in a secondary school to children with learning and other problems. It was in the sixties. We had normal typewriters, but there were also some thalidomide children who learnt typing too, on an electrical typewriter, with one hand and a footpedal.There were also children who suffered from dyslexia, and the fact that we had to slow speed in the beginning drastically improved their reading capabilities. Even for me it was... See more I was fourteen years old. My mother was a teacher and taught secretary skills in a secondary school to children with learning and other problems. It was in the sixties. We had normal typewriters, but there were also some thalidomide children who learnt typing too, on an electrical typewriter, with one hand and a footpedal.There were also children who suffered from dyslexia, and the fact that we had to slow speed in the beginning drastically improved their reading capabilities. Even for me it was extremely useful, because as a student I never had a lack of work (and money).
Great subject. ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Cecilia Paris
Argentina
Local time: 14:57
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
| Practice makes perfect | May 2, 2008 |
Luisa Ramos wrote:
One thing that I remember well is my piano teacher lifting my wrist, insisting in the correct position of the hands. My typing teacher did the same. How come no pianist or typist of yesterday ever heard of or experienced Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? The advent of the computer made it possible for many people to start typing, without receiving any formal typing training. Thus, they did not know any better (and still don't) than resting their wrists on the edge of the keyboard, and that is the wrong position, that is what causes the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. By the way, it also slows you down.
Thanks for the tip Luisa! Willl add keeping my wrists up to my ergonimic keyboard, to lessen the damage.
Learnt at a typing school. At my first job my boss asked me if my typwriter was hot, and I touched it to see if it was (too late realized I was being teased!!). Now my children are kind of fascinated at how I can type looking at them in the face.
Kind of like the idea of the voice recognition system.
| | | | Angel Biojo
Statele Unite
Local time: 10:57
din engleză în spaniolă
| Typing speed helps | May 2, 2008 |
As many other things I have had to learn in my life I learnt how to type in a hurry. I was lucky enough to have a friend who taught it to me when I was twelve. She did a great job. The only thing I never learnt how to type without looking at the keyboard was the numbers, because as I said before I was in a hurry. In this age of ours when computers are ever-present I am certainly glad I did it at such an early age. Now I am about sixty five.
| | | | Clarisa Moraña
Statele Unite
Local time: 12:57
Membru (2002)
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
| Something weird in my case | May 2, 2008 |
While I can blind type (in fact, i'm blind typing right now), and all the words are written fluently, don't ask me where the letters are located. I have to look carefully the keyboard and locate every single key. My fingers, though, know exactly where they have to go.
Kind regards
Clarisa
| | | | Ledja
Regatul Unit
Local time: 18:57
din engleză în albaneză
+ ...
| How I got started... | May 3, 2008 |
The first type-writer I set my hands on was old and bulky, it contained the letters ë and ç, and had a and q reversed. My father kept insisting that I use all fingers, but boy how sore they felt hitting those round buttons - I was only eleven. My baby small could just about manage holding down the shift key, forget a, q, and z.
I was ever so delighted to be asked to type some short creative pieces for the classroom's literature display using the school's type-writer, and put my ... See more The first type-writer I set my hands on was old and bulky, it contained the letters ë and ç, and had a and q reversed. My father kept insisting that I use all fingers, but boy how sore they felt hitting those round buttons - I was only eleven. My baby small could just about manage holding down the shift key, forget a, q, and z.
I was ever so delighted to be asked to type some short creative pieces for the classroom's literature display using the school's type-writer, and put my newly earned skills to the test. What a dissapointment! After wasting about 6 A4s, I resorted to taking the work home to get the a-s and q-s right.
Eight years from that, I was in England taking ICT classes and facing a laptop keyboard for the first time. Surely after tackling my father's type-writer this should be a breeze. I hit the A key and was shocked to see a row of a-s lining up halfway through the screen. It took me a while to soften my touch and move from aaaaaaaasssssssssddddddffffff to asdf, and a longer while on Mavis Beacon to get my fingers positioned right, but even with all that practice of thousands of words long college assignments on English Language and Literature, I can still type faster in my first language. I am baffled why.
Best,
Ledja ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Samuel Murray
Ţările de Jos
Local time: 19:57
Membru (2006)
din engleză în afrikaans
+ ...
| I learnt at college | May 4, 2008 |
Henry Hinds wrote:
We can assume that good typing skills are essential to our profession. How are yours? How did you learn? If you were a better typist, could you be more productive? How can one unlearn 50 years of bad habits?
I studied a translators' diploma and typing skills was included. We had to maintain 20 wpm in a speed test (nett). After I reached the required 20 wpm, I let my concentration slip and allowed various bad habits to creep up on me. Right now my nett typing speed is about 75 wpm, but it could be faster if I let go of some habits...
| | | | Lidia Morejudo
Regatul Unit
Local time: 18:57
din engleză în spaniolă
+ ...
I learnt to type in a school attending one hour a day for a year. The only way to learn is practice and patience. I suspect many people don't have it these days.
We started typing with our little fingers, then the next finger and so on, till we got to the thumb. Then next line up, and next line down. You had to learn all the letters and say them in different orders, middle line, upper line, bottom line, then in vertical rows. I couldn't do it now, but I don't need to look while I type and... See more I learnt to type in a school attending one hour a day for a year. The only way to learn is practice and patience. I suspect many people don't have it these days.
We started typing with our little fingers, then the next finger and so on, till we got to the thumb. Then next line up, and next line down. You had to learn all the letters and say them in different orders, middle line, upper line, bottom line, then in vertical rows. I couldn't do it now, but I don't need to look while I type and I use all fingers and thumbs.
I suppose it's a good exercise as well for your fingers.
It was painful to learn, but after that it's like riding a bike, you never forget. I am amazed at how many office workers can't even type these days, and in more than one occasion they have just stared at me in wonder, just because I was typing away not looking at the keyboard. Mind you, my old boss typed very fast using only two fingers...
[Edited at 2008-05-28 10:19] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Număr de pagini: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » How are your typing skills? | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
| | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
