A question for the Americans

[beltspinner.livejournal.com]

It takes me literally FOREVER to find what key stands for each Russian letter on the keyboard. Anyone have any suggestions for a generally permanent solution that isn't going to a. feel weird or b. come off on my fingers? Clearly pencil won't work, and I don't want it to feel really weird either. Any suggestions?

Comments

[hope1972.livejournal.com]

write the letters down, cut small pieces of paper with the letters and glue them onto the keyboard... I saw that once.

[oryx_and_crake]

Try and find keyboard stickers (наклейки на клавиатуру) with Russian letetrs, either in online stores or in Russian book/computer stores if there are any of these around you. They are transparent and will not obscure English letters.
(I don't know exactly what you mean by feeling weird; have you tried a permanent marker? Another soultion is to write the letters not on the horisontal surface of the keys, where it will come off onto your fingers, but on the vertical surface of the key facing you.)

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

Here's a link (http://mllab.ou.edu/mllab/tutorial/Computer_Russification.htm) for instructions on how to download/install a phonetic keyboard. I find that it's *much* easier to use. Some of the letters aren't quite right (B = W and the like), but it is substantially more intutive than what comes by default

[mricon.livejournal.com]

Draw them on the vertical side of the key that's facing you. If there is a key blocking it, you can press it out of the way (unplug the keyboard for this procedure). This is the fastest way and won't rub off immediately.

[crculver.livejournal.com]

If you intend on spending time in Russia or Ukraine, you really need to learn the Cyrillic keyboard. I know it feels weird, but if you kept at it, it will become natural in time.

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

I live in Russia. I use phonetic layout exclusively. Made my own for XP that matches the emacs one - easy with microsoft keyboard layout editor. And for X11 there's XKB of course.

PS: I did use йцукенг when keyboards where jcukeng/йцукенг, but I thoroughly forgot it.

[crculver.livejournal.com]

What do you do when you have to visit an Internet café or use a computer at a friend's house?

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

When I was in Russia (St. Petersburg, 2002), I found that all the internet cafes used English keyboards with the phonetic layout, even the ones at my school. I was shocked, but pleasantly so.

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

I don't. Mmm, notebooks/pdas + hotspots :).

Even when I have too - my primary usage of typing Russian is for email. I do all email on unix, where I use emacs, and emacs has its own input customization system that one can use even if you have no 8-bit input.

So even if I'm, say, in friend's office in Finland, where there's no Russian keyboard and no way to configure a different layout - I can still do my email just fine :).

[uncledrax.livejournal.com]

Look on EBay or something for russian keyboard stickers.. I think I bought some for $1.99 or somesuch.. very helpful for having to learn to type again in a different language..

the stickers I got have the russian charaters offset so you can still see the english keyboard layout letters

[solito.livejournal.com]

Have a look at these sites:

http://www.russianstickers.com/
http://www.russianeditor.com/russian-keyboard-stickers.htm
http://www.worldlanguage.com/Russian/Products/Russian/KeyboardStickers/Page1.htm
http://www.mikhailtech.com/modules.php?name=Articles&rop=showcontent&id=31
http://lp2000.com/pckeyboard.html (search the word "Russian")
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31568&item=6745380330&rd=1

and many many other sites found by Google™

[sventhelost.livejournal.com]

My work ordered theirs from http://www.latkey.com

[aciel.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend a typing tutor that works in Russian. There are a few out there. It worked great for me until I got too lazy. *grin*

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

As aciel said, use a typing tutor. There's this excellent one, that's free and quite easy to use, at www.alfatyping.com/index_en.php

That way, you can just do it by heart and not need any weird stickers of any sort.

[morgenstern180.livejournal.com]

i bought one of those silver enamel paint pens in a hardware store, they have permanent enamel pain in them but work like a normal pen, and i wrote on the keys with it.

[kart.livejournal.com]

I painted letters on very carefully using a fine paintbrush and some nail polish. Even permanent marker wears off eventually.



re: йцукенг vs. phonetic --- all the Russians I knew from my old job used the standard layout, and all the computers at our place toggled between qwerty and йцукенг. I have no idea how common the phonetic layout is, but it just doesn't seem proper, ya know?

[borodator.livejournal.com]

Here in Russia phonetic layout is rare but exists.
Most of my friends who prefer phonetic are computer geeks though.
I personally was taught to blind-type on mechanical typewriter so I'm stuck to йцукен keyboard ;)

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

If you have a light-colored keyboard, here's one easy way:

Use a fine black marker pen to write letters on the front side of the keys. You can still see them clearly from this position and they will last a long time - since nothing touches them.

It's not as funky as factory-made labels but it works...

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

Short of buying stickers, here is what I did.

I opened up notepad, and typed out the layout of the Russian keyboard, both without the shift key, and then with. Save this file and open it up when you want to type in Russian.

I started typing in Russian. Instead of looking down to my fingers every time, all I had to do was look at the screen. This way, I'm not in the habit of looking down at the keys when I need to know where the letters are. (I did the same thing when I learned how to type the Dvorak layout for English). At first it was painfully slow, but not even having the chance to look down at the keys to figure out what you are doing really burns in where the keys are into your memory. I'm far from a great typist in Russian, but it's a ton easier than it was before (and after awhile, you'll have the keyboard memorised, you won't have to look down, or look at your notepad document either!)