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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| 4nLV Newbie United States Joined 3683 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 18 05 April 2014 at 4:04am | IP Logged |
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I know there are a lot of people on this site who probably have learned a language that
has certain special letters that cause problems for them while trying to type online, simply because these letters don't exist in their own native language. For example, I'm learning French and when trying to type on line I commonly have to open up the virtual keyboard on Google Translate and copy/paste any words containing the letters "ç, é, è, à, â, û etc.". So I was wondering, what do you do? If you grew up using a standard English keyboard with no special letters, do you use a virtual keyboard? Did you order a custom keyboard with more letters? Do you use the same slow and tedious method I do? Please fill me in. Edited by 4nLV on 05 April 2014 at 4:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4683 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 18 05 April 2014 at 5:35am | IP Logged |
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You can set up an international layout for windows:
Go to: Control Panel/Language and Region/Change Keyboard/Add... from there you can choose which keyboard layout you want to add. I find that "US International" covers most of my needs for Romance languages. Once that is done, right-click on the task bar to open the Language Bar. This lets you switch between layouts. For US International the commands are: ' plus (letter) for an acute accent: á é í ó ú ` plus (letter) for an accent grave: à è ì ò ù , plus (c) for ç control- plus (letter)for ā ē ī ō ū ~ plus (n) for ñ " plus (letter) for ö ü and so on. You can get the hang of it quickly. Although it doesn't work in this forum, I can type directly into word and then cut and paste the whole text into HTLAL. There are still a lot of letters in other languages that aren't covered, but you can choose a different layout for your keyboard for those. However, this also changes the actual layout of the keyboard, so it can get confusing. I like the US International because it only changes the properties of a few keys. Edited by kanewai on 05 April 2014 at 5:38am 9 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4924 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 3 of 18 05 April 2014 at 5:46am | IP Logged |
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I've got a Mac. In 'Keyboard Preferences' I can select all the keyboards I need. Currently, I've got Australian, Thai, Swiss German (for German and French in one keyboard), Thai and Turkish. I have set a shortcut to cycle between those 5 keyboards. I type without looking at my keyboard (which is Chinese/American because I bought my Mac in Taiwan). Looking at my keyboard would utterly confuse me, but I don't do that, I look at the screen. I don't have problems switching between the different layouts, I seem to have developed separate motor skills for each of my languages. I would suggest you switch on French and just learn where the various special characters are without looking at the keys. After a few days or weeks, typing in French will become second nature.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6391 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 4 of 18 05 April 2014 at 10:21am | IP Logged |
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I use the Finnish keyboard settings, supplemented by abcTajpu and occasionally I just type the numerical codes, for example ALT+0227 for ã.
For me it also works fine on HTLAL, without the need to paste. But if you choose a method that involves pasting, get a clipboard manager (I prefer Ditto). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4667 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 5 of 18 05 April 2014 at 10:44am | IP Logged |
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Since Windows (7) and OSX is already mentioned:
If you've got Windows 8/8.1, setting it up is similar, but you can switch between them by using win+space (which is similar to how it's done on a Mac, I think...) How to set up: 1. press windows button to load the infamous Start screen 2. press windows + x 3. click "control panel" 4. find the "add language" option 5. click "add language" 6. choose and install that language Please be aware that I use the Norwegian version of windows, hence the translations might be wrong. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6391 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 6 of 18 05 April 2014 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
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On Windows you can also switch by using Shift+Ctrl or Shift+Alt. in Russia there are actual flame wars about which is better.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5326 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 18 05 April 2014 at 12:44pm | IP Logged |
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Since you're an English-language speaker learning French, you'll probably have three major choices on most operating systems:
1. US International keyboard layouts. 2. French keyboard layouts. 3. Canadian French keyboard layouts. Options (1) and (3) are both regular QWERTY keyboards, with minor chances so you can type accented letters. Option (2), however, is actually an AZERTY keyboard, and it moves a lot of regular letters around for no obvious reason. So if expect to switch between English and French a lot in the future, seriously consider options (1) and (3). I use an International keyboard on my Linux laptop, and a French Canadian keyboard on my Android devices, and I find it much less frustrating than changing to and from AZERTY all the time. In general, I think it's really useful to learn to type your foreign languages relatively early on, at least if you're a computer person. This allows you to take notes, ask questions online, make Anki flashcards, and participate in text chats. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Alphathon Groupie Scotland Joined 3974 days ago 60 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Scottish Gaelic | Message 8 of 18 05 April 2014 at 2:32pm | IP Logged |
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If you're on Windows you could also create your own custom keyboard layout using Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator. It's not as straightforward as just changing the layout to US international, and may be better avoided if you're not sure of what you're doing, but it has the advantages that you can set the keys yourself and that you can add any character you want. For example, my custom layout allows me to type the German ß character, which the UK-Extended Layout lacks, with AltGr + s, as well as allowing me to type several other frequently used (by me anyway) characters with ease (±, ×, ÷, °, µ, etc).
Personally, if I were using a US keyboard I'd do it this way since I'm not a fan of how the US international layout makes the keys primarily accent keys with their "normal" function secondary (requiring space to be pressed to activate them - I don't want to have to hit two keys every time I want to type a comma or a quotation mark). I much prefer the system used by the UK-Extended Layout, wherein holding AltGr (right Alt) activates the accent dead keys, thus allowing them to function normally the rest of the time. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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