Russian keyboards

[Josh Wilson]

To get back to the original question. 

 

I'm not sure which is most popular - but we have three of them that have
been mentioned on SEELANGS before listed in section 1 (top of the page)
here: http://www.sras.org/library

 

Perhaps try them, see which you (or a sampling of your students) like best,
and run with it. 

 

Best, 

 

Josh Wilson
Assistant Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor in Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
SRAS.org 
jwilson at sras.org

 

 

From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of David Goldfarb
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2013 5:29 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian keyboards

 

As the only American who works in a Polish government office, I'm the only
person using the "standard" Polish keyboard that I've seen on ancient Polish
typewriters that probably date to the 1930s. Once I had an intern--an
American--who also used the national Polish keyboard, but I don't think I
know any Poles who use it, though I'm sure they must be out there.  The
Poles all use Polonized Windows or iOS with alt-keys to form the diacritics.

Before computers, in many European countries, typing was considered
something of a specialized skill, appropriate only to professional typists
and people in certain professions, like journalism.  In Poland, when
computers became commonly available, I don't think many people had any
particular allegiance to the national typewriter keyboard.  As recently as
the early 1990s, when I started learning Russian, I didn't know many
Russians who could type, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are not such
purists about their national keyboard.

-- 
David A. Goldfarb
Curator of Literature and Humanities
Polish Cultural Institute in New York
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 4621
New York, NY 10118
tel. 212-239-7300, ext. 3002
fax 212-239-7577
www.polishculture-nyc.org
--
http://www.davidagoldfarb.com

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 7:39 PM, Jules Levin <ameliede at earthlink.net> wrote:

On 4/30/2013 3:30 PM, Genevra Gerhart wrote: 

The argument against a phonetic keyboard is that you'll have grave
difficulties with a Russian keyboard in Russia.  

This whole discussion is a rerun, and it ignores the reality of 2013.  It is
like watching a Simpsons rerun from 1992.  I assume that a student in Russia
will have a personal electronic writing machine with any number of keyboards
installed, according to the desires of the student.  Since all keyboard
arrangements are more or less arbitrary, there is no inherent virtue in the
Standard vs. a phonetic keyboard.  The goals of the individual student
should determine the choice.  Even if one can learn a second keyboard, why
invest the time unless one derives aesthetic pleasure from such learning.
[This is not sarcastic:  I hate driving and would hate to have to learn a
new way of driving in a Russian car, but I actually enjoy the act of typing,
which I learned about 60 years ago.  And I love how fast I can type Russian
on my phonetic keyboard.] 
The last time this came up, it was decided that if an American wanted to get
a job in a Russian office it would make sense to learn the Standard
keyboard, but now I think even this reason is Simpsons-1992.  Imagine that I
am an office manager in Moscow, and for some reason (bilingual in Russian
and English?) I want to hire an American for the summer.  Why?  Aside from
getting an English speaker who can type letters in English, perhaps there is
some cachet in having an attractive young American person in my office.
Only this attractive young American informs me that s/he only knows the
phonetic keyboard.  What do I say?  I say, well, can you install this
keyboard on the computer you will be using?  Need I go on...?
So in the end, there is absolutely NO reason to learn the standard keyboard
anymore.
Jules Levin (who obviously enjoys typing...)
Los Angeles




 

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