Russian keyboards

[Jules Levin]

On 2/27/2011 5:02 PM, Nola wrote:
> But for students who want to seriously study the language, using the modified keyboard would be useless. They should start out with the true  keyboard and learn it from the beginning. Why waste time and end up having to un-learn the modified one and then learn the proper keyboard?Just do it right from the beginning.
This ritualization of the "true" keyboard is unbelievable!  I have yet 
to read one logical practical reason for learning the Russian keyboard 
layout if one is already a fast typist on qwerty.   The whole thing 
comes down to time/cost evaluation.    If you already can type and know 
Russian, it takes 10 or 15 minutes to learn the Russian QWERTY.  Most 
adults do not have two weeks of daily practice time to master a skill 
that will not pay off calorically, musically, or financially.  Do you 
want to get a job as a secretary in Russia?  Learn the Russian 
keyboard.  Are you going to Russia for an academic year and will NOT 
bring your own computer, but will need to do Russian word processing 
there?  Isn't it possible you will also need occasionally to write 
English in Russia?   If you will have access to someone else's computer 
for word processing, chances are you can also install the student 
keyboard in addition to the keyboard on the computer.  If not, go to 
town and learn the Russian keyboard, that seems so essential a part of 
Russian civilization that you will be as helpless as  Tolstoy must have 
been, not knowing it.   To get a better perspective about this, assume 
you are a native English speaker who knows QWERTY, and you meet a 
visiting Russian scholar who uses a Russian keyboard layout for English 
to type English--she doesn't know QWERTY!  What is your reaction?  Are 
you horrified?  Mine is a big yawn.
> So: if serious about Russian, use the Russian keyboard. If not, then go ahead with the modified one.
Yeah, right.

Jules Levin

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