Korean Job Discussion Forums

mithridates · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:21 am Post subject:

Mostly faster typing speed and less strain on the hands. It's easier to type for long periods of time because it's pretty much just your fingers going left, right, left, right on the home row.
Try typing 'stewardess' for example on the qwerty keyboard. There are a number of times where it's just impossible to type fast on a qwerty - you can type fast of course, but it has those weird little bumps all the time that prevent you from being as fast as you could otherwise.
One interesting fact is that the top row of the qwerty keyboard was made so that salesmen could type the word typewriter in order to impress people (notice that the keys for typewriter are all on the top row) and the rest of them were assigned as best as they could but there was no study done on word frequency and distance one's fingers have to move in order to type something. Whereas Dvorak had a decade or two of work put into it and is clearly the better model. Even the people who patented the qwerty keyboard later on patented a different version because they knew its flaws, though they didn't end up doing anything different with it.

Here's stewardess on a Dvorak keyboard for example: ;kd,aohd;; - every key but two on the home row.

Satori · Joined: 09 Dec 2005 Location: Above it all

Yes, I'm actually damn fast, no looking. I never learned formally. I found a free website with a course of exercises to follow. Couple that with the fact that that I've done a fair amount of time in live chat ( years ago before yahoo chat got overrun by sex ads ) and on message boards. One thing about doing the course I did, I'm great with the letters, but I drop speed severely when going up to the numbers and sometimes hit the wrong one if I don't look. I think real typing skills should involved being able to hit every key on a computer keyboard, the number above and at right, and the top row or pc comands, the four arrows, all at speed while not looking. But yeah, fast typer, and I love this skill, it allows one to get stuff down almost at the speed of thinking which I think is helpful and if it's not helpful its certainly satisfying.

krats1976 · Joined: 14 May 2003

OiGirl · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Hoke-y-gun

I taught myself to type at the age of 7 in order to be able to program in BASIC on my VIC-20. I was supposed to take a typing class in 8th grade, but for some reason they decided that although "keyboarding" was mandatory, that they could take me out of it to be in orchestra.

I still have a reputation as a fast typer. Friends and co-workers will ask me to type things close to deadline. I took an online test when I needed to give my speed on a job application and apparently I can type at 50 wpm (taking into consideraton errors!)

I would definately like to find a good online typing program for hangul. I can type in hangul, but it's not a pretty sight!

OiGirl · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Hoke-y-gun

peemil · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Location: Koowoompa

You've convinced me Mith... I'm going to give the dvorak a go.

mithridates · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 5:18 pm Post subject:

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

Where would one find keyboard settings in order to switch to dvorak? I have a keyboard settings in my control panel, but there is no option for switching to dvorak. Sad

pegpig · Joined: 10 May 2005

mithridates · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 11:26 am Post subject:

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

Tried that, still don't have the option. Maybe because I have a bootleg version? (wanted the real thing, but it wasn't available)

mithridates · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:28 pm Post subject:

Here's a screen shot of my computer if that helps:

Rteacher · Joined: 23 May 2005 Location: Western MA, USA

Dang, this discussion is technically way over my head. Somehow, I got an "A" in a typing class at a business college, but I really can't type well. (They let me keep taking the test over-and-over until somehow I got to 35 words-a-minute with fewer than three mistakes...) Because I never got good at it, I gave up on working as a paralegal after practrically all law firms in central Florida changed their job description to "glorified secretary with legal knowledge"...

pet lover · Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Location: not in Seoul

Mith, I get that first box, but not the second one. What did you click to make that appear? I've clicked on everything short of installing a lot of Asian language files that I neither want nor need. Is that it? Does one have to install all those language files to get to the next box?

mithridates · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 11:27 pm Post subject:

Hitting that details button will take you to the second one where you can select other languages. You don't need to add Asian fonts, no. Go to the English part and I think there will be a place to select the Dvorak layout as well.