Tuesday, February 28, 2023

The "wonders" of typing

I always admired people who were able to type with more than two fingers and also without looking at the keyboard, like searching for the letters. I can not. I have been using computer for almost 30 years and still type with two fingers and looking for the letters.

The Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters versus the 26 in the American ones. 14 of the Hungarian vowels have accents. These result in at least 44 letter keys (I think). Learning those is no small feat yet, people did learn it many are very good at it.

My good friend went to business school in Hungary where typing was a separate subject. This was shortly after we went from runic writing to the alphabet, that long ago . Anyway, in those days they used the good, old fashioned typewriters with carbon ribbons. He told me that the typewriter keys were marked with the proper letters, but their assignment was to memorize them.

After a certain time the letters were removed, and the students were expected to know them by heart. They had to type certain texts and were grade on their accuracy. I asked him recently if he still remembered these. He told me that like a lot of stuff one learns in school then forgets upon leaving this fell into that category.

I used to have a secretary who was a crackerjack typist. She was able to look at the pages, type them without looking at the keyboard and at the same time carry on a conversation. She was the best. I wish I could type that well, but I guess if I hadn't learned it by now I never will. 

This will not get into my bucket list.







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