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Learning keyboard for foreign languages. | ||
Tags: Keyboard | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| ilanbg Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6188 days ago 166 posts - 189 votes  Speaks: French, English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (classical), Persian | Message 1 of 19 09 November 2007 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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What are people's thoughts on learning the keyboards of foreign languages?
I don't see it being too useful unless one plans to visit a country using that language and use its computers. In most cases there are shortcuts available on the QWERTY (or Dvorak, if you prefer) keyboard that will produce any unusual symbols common in your foreign language, as well. I was wondering about this as I realized that after just a couple hours of typing using the Arabic QWERTY keyboard, I was typing at almost the same speed as on a regular QWERTY keyboard, in English. I was considering learning the regular Arabic keyboard, but wondered what the point would be. I imagine its layout is perhaps more efficient for typing, but other than that I don't see the benefit. Thoughts? (And of similar ilk, does anyone know where one could buy [online] little stickers for [foreign or non-foreign] alphabets? If I do choose to use learn the Arabic keyboard I'd like to stick its letters under the Latin letters on my keyboard.) Edited by ilanbg on 09 November 2007 at 6:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6428 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 2 of 19 09 November 2007 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just use whatever Microsoft's built into their operating system for that language. It takes a while to practice, but as long as you disregard the letters already on your keyboard and learn to touch-type, it's no problem (assuming you can touchtype in your own language, of course).
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| ilanbg Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6188 days ago 166 posts - 189 votes Speaks: French, English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (classical), Persian | Message 3 of 19 09 November 2007 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh... I suppose it would have been worth mentioning I use a Mac. On my Mac, I have two options for the Arabic
keyboard: Arabic and Arabic QWERTY. Arabic is whatever they use in Egypt, I presume, and Arabic QWERTY attempts to pair up the Arabic letters with their closest Latin counterparts. Likewise, I can create most of the symbols for French or Spanish without having to use the French or Spanish keyboards. So is there any point to learning the layout for any of these languages, if there are easier alternatives? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OrlMoth Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6142 days ago 77 posts - 83 votes 2 sounds | Message 4 of 19 09 November 2007 at 10:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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In kubuntu, it lets me switch to any keyboard configuration I want. kubuntu has a nice touch type training feature, too.
The only problem is the letters printed on the keyboard, but then I'm a graphic designer and I can make them myself (and so can you!): print a sheet full of special characters at around font 10 or 12 (any text editing software will do) cut it and paste it on the keys. Adhesive paper (also know as sticker paper)is available at your local Office supply store. If you have no printer, the nice people at your local copy/print shop will gladly print them for you if you bring them a file with the special characters on a disk. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6546 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 19 10 November 2007 at 5:37am | IP Logged | ||
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On a related note, Mac OS X Leopard now lets you create custom keyboards, with customizable keys and combinations for inserting any Unicode character. This would be great for inputting minor languages with odd letters or diacritics.
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| Jamfrogs Newbie Australia Joined 6058 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 6 of 19 10 November 2007 at 6:29am | IP Logged | ||
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For folks on Windows systems, you can use the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator, which can be downloaded here.
Windows comes with the On-Screen Keyboard, which can be set to always on top which is useful for just sticking in a corner of the screen as a reference. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6687 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 19 10 November 2007 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | ||
Efficient for typing, yes. If you don't want to type, you don't have to learn it. It is as simple as that. This is a common topic. How hard can it be learning a new alphabet? Anybody can learn to type in Cyrillic (just an example) in an hour or two (probably quicker). If that's all it takes, I'll learn that instead of buying stickers or creating a custom keyboard. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6469 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 19 30 December 2007 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
Do you know how to do that? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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