Grandmother, why do you write so quickly?

[pne]

This morning, I was addressing a letter for Stella, and Amy was watching me do so.

While I was writing, she asked me, "Why do you write so quickly?"

She got no response and then asked Stella, "Why is Daddy writing so quickly?". She responded, "Er kann das" (roughly, "He's able to do that, you know" -- not quite the same connotation as "Because he can").

She asked, "Whyyyyy?" (One of her favourite questions.)

So I tried to explain that when I was learning to hand-write in school, I also wrote slowly, but that I've practised a lot over the years, and I got better and faster, and now I'm able to write quickly. I'm not sure whether she understood.

I'm also really fast at typing, but I don't think she will have noticed that :) I'm apparently well-known for that in the company, though.

That, too, is just practice: my first exposure to computers was, I think, the Apple ][e (//e?) in 4th grade, and I've been typing since then. It's not ten-finger typing, but my fingers simply know where the keys are without having to look at them or think about it much. I just think about the letters (or words) I want to type, and they flow from my fingers.

I wonder whether switching to Dvorak would be beneficial, but I think that I can currently type so quickly that it would take a considerable length of time before the benefits (if indeed there are any) would outweight the length of time I'd need to regain my familiarity with the keyboard layout.

(Even such a minor thing as switching to a US keyboard layout would probably slow me down, since although I do a lot of typing in English, I'm used to using a German keyboard layout to do so, where Y and Z are in different positions.)

Comments

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

It's not ten-finger typing, but my fingers simply know where the keys are without having to look at them or think about it much. I just think about the letters (or words) I want to type, and they flow from my fingers.

I'm the same way. We HAD to take a 'computer literacy' class in 8th grade where we learned on old Commodore 64s and had to write programs in BASIC. *headdesk* I also had to take a typing class in 9th grade, so I've been typing for almost half my life now. I've gotten to the point where I can usually type around 90 wpm on a good day. :D I don't have to really think too much where the keys are. My hands just seem to know what to do on their own and I only really run into trouble if I'm trying to type too quickly.

[leighbug]

Zoë's getting to the why stage. There have been a few times where I've been at a loss as to how to explain things...like, "Mommy, why is it cold?" My mind immediately goes scientific, which doesn't quite work for a 3 year old!

And yeah, typing is totally practice. I remember doing the same stupid exercises in my 6th grade typing class (and several years ago that same teacher was fired for having relations with a student...). I remember typing onion over and over and over. I can still type that word crazy fast!

I've gotten to the point where I can type without looking at either the keyboard or the monitor...my fingers know when they make a mistake, and I back up and correct it almost without thinking. It creeps people out occasionally. I make some mistakes, but not many. A lot of them are just hitting the letters slightly out of order, which is an easy fix.

Oddly, switching between German and English layouts isn't too terrible. I adapted to the y and z switch pretty quickly, so much that when I came back to the US from Germany, I kept mixing them up! The major things were the punctuation, which are pretty different, if I remember correctly.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Sounds like my typing. I've used a variety of US keyboards with minor variations. I really don't like most ergonomic ones, because I don't like the incline. But short of that, the most annoying one I used had the enter key where I expected the backspace to be... you can imagine the issues.

I think of it in much the same way I think of piano playing. You don't think about which key is each note; you just learn it. Then you read what you need to do or think what you want to type and do it.

[pne.livejournal.com]

There have been a few times where I've been at a loss as to how to explain things...like, "Mommy, why is it cold?" My mind immediately goes scientific, which doesn't quite work for a 3 year old!

I know, right?

This evening, she was a little grumpy at having to go to bed and missing the Sandman on TV -- she was disappointed that the Sandman "had already gone to bed" since it was still light outside! (We switched to DST just this weekend.)

So Stella said that the days will be getting longer and longer and soon it will still be light even when Mummy and Daddy go to bed.

"Whyyyy?" Uh, where do you start? The earth's axis and the layout of the solar system? For now, "Because days get longer in spring and shorter in autumn, that's just what they do".

[pne.livejournal.com]

I can type without looking at either the keyboard or the monitor...my fingers know when they make a mistake, and I back up and correct it almost without thinking.

Heh, I do that, too.

I make some mistakes, but not many. A lot of them are just hitting the letters slightly out of order, which is an easy fix.

My worst problem is words that start the same, since my fingers have "autocomplete" built in... for example, "though" often turns into "thought", and "an" sometimes turns into "and", and so on.

The major things were the punctuation, which are pretty different, if I remember correctly.

*nods*

FWIW, I learned the US layout back in the good old days of MS-DOS 3/4/5... when the system would come up without a keyboard driver (for whatever reason), you would end up stuck with a US layout. So knowing that shift-8 is what gives you the asterisk came in pretty handy in such cases.

[quinctia]

Probably switching to ten-finger typing would speed you up more than changing keyboard layouts at this point.

I used to use some sort of weird amalgam where I only typed with like four or five of my fingers, and I was pretty fast. But, at some point, I just started typing with all of my fingers. I typed quite a bit faster.

And then I had the summer job once, typesetting long legal ads. Now I type like a robot!

The only annoying layout things I've had have been related to the fact that my last couple of computers have been laptops, and some of the less essential buttons are smaller or squished together. Yet, I still use a full-sized keyboard at work without issues. I guess I'm pretty good at adapting to different sizes and locations for the backspace key. XD

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

US keyboard layouts confuse me too!

[leighbug]

Yeah, I have the autocomplete too sometimes!

[leighbug]

Yeah, she hasn't asked that one. But she definitely does her sleep schedule by the dark. She goes to bed when it's dark outside. Which means when it's the summer, she goes to bed later.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

Yeah, half the time I'm incapable of typing "though" because it always turns into "thought." There's another couple that I autocomplete (I like that term!) but I can't remember them offhand.

I'm a fast typer because I had to take a typing class for a quarter in 6th grade. Between that, and playing MUDs for years, I have a 100+ wpm speed. There was this MUD called Federation I used to play 1994-1995 or so, and one of the things you could do is transport goods from planet to planet for higher-level players. I remember a couple times people thought I was using a bot/macro because I swept across the galaxy so quickly.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Probably switching to ten-finger typing would speed you up more than changing keyboard layouts at this point.

Possibly, but given that the last time I took a test, I scored over 100 wpm I feel no great pressure to improve my typing speed even further.