How/when/where did you learn to type?

[walkin jack]

I hope this isn't a jambog. Did a search and didn't see anything so here it is.

TYPING 101

Obviously, we all have, to one degree or other, at
least SOME typing skills. A lot of people, mostly
men, I suppose, don't really seem like the type that
would type (type that would type??...sorry). They have
never had any formal training and still they find
themselves, due to the requirements of their jobs, all
of a sudden having to use a computer and therefore a
keyboard, whether they like it or not.

You can see an infinite variety of different styles
and speed levels skill levels when it come to how
everyday folks type, I see some non-professional types
try to center their hands on the "home keys" but they
still wind up looking for and at each letter before
they type it, some use the index finger of each
hand but are still capable of remarkable speed and
accuracy, some learned the conventional way. Whatever
way you use the fact remains that the more you type,
however you type, the faster and more accurate you
will become.

How did YOU learn to type? Was the requirement thrust
upon you against your will? Are you of the "hunt-n
peck" discipline.

For me it went like this: When I was a senior in high
school in 1961, I had satisfied all the requirements
for all the core subjects and had all my credits
needed for graduation. The good part of this was that
I could take a lot of "elective" courses. I got beat
out on some of the ones I wanted most like auto shop
but I needed one more subject to fill out my schedule
and the last, best thing that was still available at
the time period I needed was typing.

RATS! I couldn't believe that I was gonna take
TYPING (groan). What a dorky thing to do! But what the
heck, I figured that I'd be able to bluff my way
through that without any problem at all and it'd make a
great "goof-off" course. The first day, I noticed that
there were about 20 or so girls in the class, 4 other
boys...and me. This phenomenon did not escape the rapt
attention of Mrs. Wheating, our teacher,
either...AAHH, Ethel Wheating...Hoooo, BOY! As her
beady little eyes scanned the class over the tops of
her half-frame glasses, and she had one of those ugly
beaded neck chains attached to the temples of the
frames, her withering gaze finally settled on all us
boys (we were all sitting clustered together for
re-inforcement ( a safety-in-numbers thing) in a back
corner of the class room - in hind sight, I now
realize that this may have been a mistake). She always
wore her hair in a small knot at the back of her head
and pulled back so tightly that it stretched the skin
on her face, kind of like the character, Edgar in "Men
In Black", when the alien bug took over his skin, and
she had a voice like a metal garbage can bouncing down
3 flights of concrete stairs ...just no way to tune
THAT racket out. She was a true NAZI in her soul whose
only known purpose in life was to terrorize as many
teenagers as possible for five days a week. I could
never imagine what Mr. Wheating must have been like...

"I see", she screeched, "that we have a few ...BOYS
...with us in this class." She said the
word boys in a very harsh and offensive tone of voice.
"It is my hope that you BOYS didn't sign up for this
coarse expecting an easy ride!" she said. "If that
is the case then you may rest assured that each and
every one of you is in for a big disappointment. The
only way you will leave my class is to drop now, stay
and fail, or learn to type." Uh-oh! Pucker factor of
about 9.6 on a scale of 10

Well, at the end of it all my left ear was nearly
twice as big as the right from her pulling on it and
the knuckles of both hands stayed sore from her
whacking on them with her pointing stick, but by God, I
learned to type! Now my handwriting skills, minimal as
they were, are just gone. I can now type faster more
accurately and, I never get criticized any more about
my sloppy penmanship.

I never had any idea that I'd EVER use it...and I
never did either, not until about 14 years ago when we
started having to use computers at work. I ain't
NOBODY'S durn secretary!! I was very surprised to see
how quickly it came back to me and how quickly I
picked up speed. Now, by some strange twist
of fate, here I sit, pounding the keyboard for all
it's worth. Life, huh!?!

So, what's YOUR story, eh? ....W. J.

 

[Exiled Cheesehead]

1 year of typing in high school

Mom insisted that I take an entire year of high school typing during my sophomore year. I thought it was stupid at first, but then got to enjoy the class as it was good break from my other subjects. I am now glad that I took it and use it everyday at my job. As the saying goes: "Mom knows best"

 

[1morethan8]

One finger.

 

[OFT II]

Freshman year of high school. We had Underwood manual typewriters. At the end of the year I could type about eighty words a minute. About half of them were readable.

 

[Engineer1911]

High School Junor

I wanted to be a mechanical engineer from the sixth grade on. I never thought that the MOST valuable engineering course I would ever take was 1 semester of typing in my junior year of high school. I still type with all fingers, but have to look for the numbers.

I think I got to 35 wpm, but now I scream along at 20 wpm but every word is legible. Microsoft Word and Spellcheck are my friends. At one time I owned a manual Smith-Corona typewriter that had been used in my high school typing classes. Cleaned it with an air hose and used it for five years before it got tossed for an IBM-XT computer I think.

As a young engineer, I avoided a lot of grunt work because I would type the reports instead of doing the audits. That's when I really appreciated that typing class.

 

[W.E.G.]

at the end of it all my left ear was nearly
twice as big as the right from her pulling on it and
the knuckles of both hands stayed sore from her
whacking on them with her pointing stick

Some folks will pay for that you know.

I've had a crush on Mavis from day 1.
"smart, classy, and a little bit sassy

 

[Brian41]

I've done service work all my life and we had secretaries for typing and such. We also had parts men to find our parts for us too.
It seems about 20 years ago we lost both and I needed to learn to type first on typewritters and then keyboards for the computer to find our parts and then reports.
I learned on my own to hunt and peck but am pretty fast now knowing the keyboard.
I can cope and will do so but wonder about the secretaries and parts men that lost their jobs too.
I had the option of taking typing in HS but opted for metal shop instead. Metal shop taught me for my job and typing would have given me less I think.

 

[wbraswell]

I took Typing I in high school, and flunked. Then I took it in college, and flunked. I could type just fine, but attendance and deportment were factors also. I sat next to a friend in high school, and we would slap each others keyboards during typing tests.

 

[rburg]

In High School. Yes, my mother insisted on it. My older brother laughed at me. But then I realized the advantages. I was the only guy in the class! Lots of babes, and it broke the ice. They were friends. Of all the courses I took over the years that was the one I got the most out of. Still use the skills today. I modified some things the teacher didn't like, but even she said it wouldn't matter for a guy. So she gave me the A. As I remember it, the best part was there was absolutely no homework, ever.

And I discovered that when you're writing, you end up spending as much time trying to write as think. When you're keying something, it just becomes a second language and just flows from the fingers. Sometimes wrong, but still flowing!

After I got out of college, the subject came up at my parents house one time. Turns out my dad was in favor of it as much as my mom. It seems he figured I'd be drafted and it'd be safer in the army typing reports and things.

 

[BaldEagle1313]

Mom tried to teach us kids but she had an ancient, manual Royal with the 17" extended carriage. You really had to slam down the keys - a gentle push wouldn't cut it. After our less-than-stellar attempts she finally told us that we should take a class at school when it was offered. So...

When I was signing up for classes for my freshman year in high school, they rotated blocks of letters of the alphabet during registration so the kids named Aaron weren't always first and the kids named Zylstra weren't always last. That year, the "K-O" block (mine) went last, so my class choices were limited. Freshmen weren't allowed an open period (study hall) so by the end of day most classes were full. My choices were typing (which mom wanted me to take) or mixed chorus, which was a beginning music class. Since I had been taking piano lessons since age six and had been singing in church my whole life I skipped typing and went for "the easy A". That led to a whole 'nother story which I won't go into here.

Typing on a regular basis didn't come about until I was working at Radio Shack after high school and they introduced the TRS-80 Model One Personal Computer. Had to be able to type to show customers how to write a program in basic and save it to the cassette drive. I'm self-taught - I certainly don't use the proper finger on the proper key all the time. I make enough typing errors that proofreading is absolutely mandatory. I'd hate to think what it'd be like on a manual typewriter where you can't just mouse-click your way to the correction. My basic excuse is that my brain knows how to spell, but my fingers don't.

One thing I have noticed, though, is that I do much better on a regular keyboard compared to the one on the laptop. The laptop keyboard just has a different feel to it.

 

[Texas Star]

I used my mother's typewriter to write to gun scribes as early as jr. high school, and in college had to type, as I was a Journalism major.

Jack O'Connor was always courteous to me in correspondence, and I think it's partly because I had a college box as an address and typed letters neatly and used good spelling and grammar. I gather that he was a little contemptuous of some letter writers who used pencils and legal pads and coukd n't spel two gud. A knife editor for whom I've written also commented on how some people write to him as described. He just shook his head in bafflement and disgust over the way that some spell. He has actually had mss. come in for consideration from people whose language skills and presentations made it laughable that they would think of themselves as becoming published writers. The same can be said of many who publish fan fiction. At least, they have to type their material. No pencils on the Net!

Ironically, I still can't type, really. I'm just fairly fast using two fingers. But I've sold over 3500 magazine and newspaper articles and am working on my first book. I do wish that I'd learned to really type. It would sure speed things up in writing. I can't afford a secretary. But I bet that a lot of authors type their own stuff. For one thing, we often think of minor changes and make them as we type each page or two. A secretary can't fathom just how a character is thinking and why or why they'd do something in a certain way, but a good author knows if he needs to alter something as he creates.

As an aside, I had a lesson in humility when I wrote a three page letter to the late Warren Page, then gun editor at, "Field & Stream." He answered my questions, but added, "I get thousands of pieces of mail a year. What would happen if each was as long and as detailed as yours?" He had no idea that his correspondent was a 13 year old boy, I'm sure.

 

[Straightshooter2]

In college. At that time, when a flight departed one city, the traffic had to be sent to the next city by teletype (Dataspeed 40). That way when the flight arrived, you knew how many bags, how much mail, freight, etc. was in each bin of the plane and you knew how many bag/cargo carts to set up for unloading. Since part of my job was sending that teletype traffic and I was going to college during the day (worked midnights) I took typing. Before my classes, it was taking me anywhere from 15-25 minutes to send all the traffic. After taking a typing class in college, I cut my time down to about 5 minutes. Increased my break time by a large percentage. As an aside, you had to type 35 words per minute with a max of three errors 3 different times to pass the typing class with a C. I got the second and third ones on the last day of class which kept me from failing the class and kept me above a 3.5 honors level.

CW

 

[Aden67]

I took a semester of it in the 8th grade (1981). I struggled at first, but it came around and I did enjoy it. God, I still remember one of the sentences the teacher had us practice:

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

 

[BearBio]

Officially, in Jr high school. Realistically, in the Army. Came back with a cast on my leg and they put me in the office 'cuz I had some college.

Except for morning report, requirement was 30 wpm, any errors!

 

[SixgunFife]

High school in the '80s. We weren't "keyboarding" by then, but we did have electric typewriters.

It's been a critical skill for me. I used to crank out a consistent 45 wpm; I need to take one of those online typing tests if they still exist.

 

[A10]

High school in the 70s. It was the BEST class I ever took! I use it far more often than Organic Chemistry. Creative writing and debate were lots of fun too. I use those skills frequently........

 

[wbraswell]

School typewriters were the best way to learn to type. They didn't have characters on the keys! 40 years later, I still type lots faster by not looking at the keyboard.

 

[labworm]

As one already mentioned, in high school the typing class was filled with women. So my friend and I ended up in the course and did rather well in both categories. 1963

Today I can still type without looking at the keyboard.

Who would have known it would apply to today's technology.

And of course "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country" still can bang it out.

 

[joespapa]

Never learned to "touch-type". However, I DID learn to spell! One of my pet peeves is people on internet forums that can't spell.

 

[old bear]

Typing what typing? I still can't type but I do make an effort, not a good one mind you, to keyboard. I think Mr. Berg is correct words tend to flow much easier when I'm keyboarding compared to writing longhand.