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Poll: Can you type without watching the keyboard? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Can you type without watching the keyboard?".
View the poll results »
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2010-07-08 10:00 GMT]
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Rebekka Groß (X) 
Local time: 18:12
English to German
| If I watched the keyboard.... | Jul 8, 2010 |
...I'd not be able to see what I have to translate nor what I'm typing, plus I'd end up with a hunchback
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| I.e. do you touch-type? | Jul 8, 2010 |
Does anyone even vet these polls? Spelling?
Hardly a great advertisement for language specialists...
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Rebekka Groß (X)
Local time: 18:12
English to German
Tina Colquhoun wrote: Does anyone even vet these polls? Spelling? Hardly a great advertisement for language specialists...
True about the typo but touch-type is a very idiomatic expression and it's very likely the person who suggested the poll is not familiar with it. That's okay but the typo has to be corrected.
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| sight and sound | Jul 8, 2010 |
When I was at Uni, light-years ago, I found an ad in the local paper offering a 50% reduction on a sight-and-sound typing course.
I think I paid 5 pounds.
That was in the good old days of MANUAL typewriters ....
Best investment I ever made. 
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The asker obviously falls into the "yes, with some mistakes category".
Seriously though, my productivity would be significantly lower if I didn't touch type, and fast.
I wonder if those of us who learned to type on manuals are better because we couldn't instantly correct, so we really did learn to type correctly?
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Erik Matson
Thailand
Local time: 00:12
English to Norwegian
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| Perfect touch-typing skills | Jul 8, 2010 |
Tina Colquhoun wrote: Does anyone even vet these polls? Spelling? Hardly a great advertisement for language specialists...
Perhaps the most valuable skill I took from Middle School (a.k.a. Junior High School), and the only thing I DON'T want to forget about those miserable two years of my life.
And about the typo - thank you for saying that! I thought I was very anal, and perhaps the only one who got annoyed by such "insignificant" imperfections. However, in this case I would have to agree - not so insignificant when in a heading on the front page of website which should pride itself on linguistic excellence.
I'm just glad I didn't see something like that on my very first visit to this site - it would certainly have been enough to prevent me from subscribing, and my life might be very different today.
True about the typo but touch-type is a very idiomatic expression and it's very likely the person who suggested the poll is not familiar with it. That's okay but the typo has to be corrected.
Indeed, the thread starter gave us his/her silent vote on the poll.
I second that, please fix it a.s.a.p.
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Anne Wosnitza
Netherlands
Local time: 19:12
Member
English to German
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| Desperately wanna learn it ... | Jul 8, 2010 |
... and surely will do a course in near future. I can only touch-type a few easy words. Always looking up to the screen and back down onto the keyboard makes me dizzy, and it makes my back hurt :-/
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DianeGM
Local time: 20:12
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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| Had to ... hated it at the time | Jul 8, 2010 |
In high school when Ancient Greek was dropped from the cirriculum I had to take an elective course in touch typing. I sat there the whole time muttering to myself about how stupid and demeaning it was. Then computers took over ...
I got my first job (end of year out doing data entry) on the strength of it and I've been duly thankful and appreicative of such a skill ever since.
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Rebekka Groß (X)
Local time: 18:12
English to German
| typing software | Jul 8, 2010 |
Anne Wosnitza wrote:
... and surely will do a course in near future. I can only touch-type a few easy words. Always looking up to the screen and back down onto the keyboard makes me dizzy, and it makes my back hurt :-/
Hi Anne
Don't know if you'll read this so I'll contact you via your profile as well.
There are some good software applications for learning to touch-type out there so you can learn in your own time and at your own pace.
A friend of mine learned with a programme that dropped letters down the screen, which was fun and addictive like a game. But that was a few years ago so I don't remember the name of the software.
HTH
Rebekka
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... but my fingers always wonder off on their own when typing certain words!
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| No. It drives me mad! | Jul 8, 2010 |
Courses, exercises, practice - nothing helps.
If I had my way, I would simply write everything with a pencil. It would probably work fine if an OCR could be tuned to accept my handwriting, which is fast, correct and reasonably consistent.
But my fingers will not coordinate with the keys, and I could simply never use a typewriter. The arrows and delete keys are the ones I use most on my computer!
The Qwerty keyboard was designed when mechanical typewriters ... See more Courses, exercises, practice - nothing helps.
If I had my way, I would simply write everything with a pencil. It would probably work fine if an OCR could be tuned to accept my handwriting, which is fast, correct and reasonably consistent.
But my fingers will not coordinate with the keys, and I could simply never use a typewriter. The arrows and delete keys are the ones I use most on my computer!
The Qwerty keyboard was designed when mechanical typewriters could not keep up with the fastest human typists! So it slowed them down. For fumble-fingers like me it is a plague, because it works tenfold...
That is how I learned to proofread, honestly. And in Word I have all my regular typos added to auto-correct.
But i have learned to corecnt teh m as I fgo when the trusty Word autoodrrect isnot available. isimply cannot do wirhout it!
At least I can correct text after I type it. I never, ever try to play the piano ▲ Collapse
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| Assumed anyone "living" in front of a keyboard could | Jul 8, 2010 |
I thought only mechanical engineers hunted and pecked with their index fingers. Don't get me wrong, many very successful ones! Yes, thanks to my high school keyboarding teacher and seemingly endless drills, I can "type without looking at the keyboard".
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Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 11:12
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
I never learned to type properly and after 53 years of typing there is no way I can type even the shortest word correctly without watching the keyboard.
Despite that, I can make a good living translating because I do know how to translate. Between knowing how to type and knowing how to translate, I'll take the latter.
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