(no subject)

[lindsaybits]

i want to learn russian; i've had a fascination with it for the longest time, but have been too intimidated to do anything except learn the cyrillic alphabet. i used to know it pretty well in high school; i took class notes in it so that people couldn't look over my shoulder. lol.

i'm trying to prep my PC so that such a thing is slightly more possible. after all, if most of my computer is showing up in cyrillic, i'm more more apt to learn... sort of a quasi-immersion thing. i'm not currently in school, so this is all going to be self-taught. eek!

i'm having some problems in that the russian keyboard layout doesn't seem to match up phonetically with the english "equivalents". one of the links posted in the userinfo (http://www.translit.ru/) for this community helps with that, but i'm not sure what to do when i'm offline. any suggestions? or will i just have to learn the new keyboard layout? <:/

Comments

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

If it's hard for you to remember where the keys are, you might want to buy some Russian keyboard stickers. Different places sell them at different prices, though, so you might want to shop around.

[bobthedog.livejournal.com]

If you have a laser printer you can buy transparent sticker sheets and make your own. :D

[irkin.livejournal.com]

We usually use йцукен/qwerty layout. But there is a layout (яверты/qwerty) where each Russian letter correspond the English (p-п, z-з, n-н, etc)

This is a page (http://lib.ru/CYRILLIC/) when you can read how to make your computer cyrillic, and find that driver (Русские раскладки клавиатуры для Windows).

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem, so I found a free translit keyboard layout: here (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/kbd_eng.htm#p1251).

yay!

[lindsaybits]

that was eezackly the sort of thing i was looking for!! thank you SO much :D

*happy dances*

Re: yay!

[sekhet.livejournal.com]

I would suggest learning the actual Russian keyboard if you have the time, irritating though it may be.

It has several benefits:

-Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, it stops you thinking about the cyrillic as an equivalent for an english letter and forces you to think of it as a russian letter, first and foremost;
-Secondly, because the phonetic keyboard layout can be frustrating since it doesn't always quite match up;
-Thirdly, because if you start doing advanced work in Russian where you need to type documents, or if you spend any time in Russia, everything will be much easier for you if you're already familiar with the layout.

My first Russian teacher made us do these horrible grammar exercises on the computer, using the standard russian keyboard, and although we bitched and moaned and whined, I'm very grateful for it now. It's worth the initial investment of time for the time it will save you down the road...

just my two cents :)