to think learning to touch-type was one of the best things I've ever done?

[emkana]

Just to start a bit of a pointless thread there

YANBU - and wildpansy - do you find that your thoughts seem to flow straight from subconscious onto the page, without your really being aware of having thought them? I definitely get that and it's a bit weird...

Yes, stickylittlefingers, I've typed some quite weird things in my time! Freudian slips of the fingers.

pah stuff and nonsense who needs to touhc type? lokk how wel i can do it woithout an y teaching

:) - who needs regression therapy when you can just let your fingers do the talking...

I agree completely. I taught myself completely on my own without using any kind of aids to see if I was actually doing it right, so I'm sure I'm not doing it the correct way. When I was 13 someone asked a teacher what the lines on the F and J of a keyboard were for and when the teacher explained and illustrated how to type I kept that in mind and taught myself years later. I can fly over the keys now and dh (who works in IT) marvels at my speed and my kids always say that they want to use a computer like me without having to look at the keyboard . That being said I'm pretty slow on forums because I keep deleting and rewriting .

Ooh, I bet a typing and secretarial course would be really useful - I wonder if my local adult college does them?

I'm sure I heard somewhere that the qwerty keyboard was designed to slow typists down.

I'm baffled that it's not taught in schools - even if only a short 6 month course or something.

I had typing for one year at school (it was either that or whatever the cooking type class was called) when I was 16, and every single day at work I thank my lucky stars that I was, in effect, forced to. The odd thing is that, even though I believe I am good at what I do for a living, my typing speed seems to be what impresses people first. As soon as ds is old enough, I'll teach him to touch type too.

Mind you, I'm not nearly as fast as Desiderata, but ok for normal everyday typing.

Bumper, I've heard the same - possibly on Radio 4. I think that if you type too fast on an old manual typewriter, the metal keys get jammed together so the QWERTY keyboard helps avoid the problem by reducing speed. Or possibly it just spreads the popular letters around so they don't clump together.

The qwerty keyboard was designed to spread out the letters based on their frequency of usage, so that the keys wouldn't stick together, not to slow typists down.

I learnt when I was at school, and we had big 'sit up and beg' manual typewriters that didn't have letters on the keys. There was a big poster at the front of the classroom with a picture of the keyboard and the letters so we focused on that rather than looking down at our fingers all the time.

Then when I left university I did a 6 month post-grad secretarial course, learning shorthand as well.

I've never used the shorthand, but the typing has been invaluable. I reckon I probably type at around 90 wpm, although my accuracy isn't great.

I have a slight love-hate relationship with my ability to type. I'm pretty fast (more like 90wpm than 102 though ) and my mother made me learn at an evening class aged 17.

But for those of us who are not very confident/rather lazy, I do think it's a bit easy to 'fall back on' as a skill - I have repeatedly ended up taking typing jobs in my life (and I do prefer pure typing jobs rather than secretarial) because I'm really good at it and can earn a living without much effort (apart from aching hands and boredom), while still getting lots of positive feedback.

It also makes me very at the number of people in senior positions who have wanted ideas on how to improve productivity of their team - if I suggest they learn to type, rather than FGS writing stuff out in longhand for typists, which was certainly still happening 4 years ago in some workplaces, they all look a bit vague. It's considered a bit infra dig still I think. I was very pleased when dh learned to type at my nagging instigation, partly because it meant I didn't have to type his legal drafts any more.

Touch typing was the most useful class I took. I took it in high school in the 70's when the only other people in the class were heading off to be secretaries and definitely not going to University. I then went off to Uni and made lots of money typing everyone else's papers for them. The reason I took the class was because my father suggested it. He had taken typing in the 40's !!!! because he thought it would be a good way to meet girls (my dad was a nerd and didn't do sports or anything) and sure enough he was the only boy in the class. He is now 83 and a famous scientist and types away at great speed on his MacBookPro.

I have encouraged both my kids to learn how to type. Ds had terrible troubles with the physical act of handwriting, so he started at age 6 or so teaching himself. The bbc has a great program on their website for kids to learn how to type www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ . And I also purchased online for very little money a program called Ten Thumbs www.tenthumbstypingtutor.com/ which was great for both dh and the dc's to teach themselves typing.

What is considered a good typing speed? After seeing this thread I googled typing speed test and tried one here. Sadly I'm not as good as I think, nothing close to a previous poster. Mine is a measly 67 wmp but considering that I'm half asleep and I haven't really learnt it properly I am ok I think.

I learnt how to touch-type, turn a computer on and lots of software packages after my degree. These skills would have been really for my degree. I think everyone should learn how to touch-type in school. My dd (age 4) is already trying to learn, maybe that is a bit young, but I think everyone should leave school with the ability nowadays.

I learned at school too on a big old manual typewriter. We had a witch teacher who bellowed at us if we made a mistake, even though the typewriter keys had covers over the letters so we couldn't see them.

My mum told me back then that if I could type I'd never be unemployed.

DH and others find it v impressive that I can still touch type [smug].

has dad had fag has dad had fag has dad had fag

god, wouldn't believe how many mistakes I made doing that! Let's try again as if I was using a manual...

has dad had fag has faf had fsg has fdaf had fag...

That was one of the exercises in my mum's typing book that I purloined in the mid-80s - I still can't really touch type though and would be lost without the delete key.

Would love to be fast and accurate.

I teach, and now have to produce all my own documents, unlike in the UK where few teaching staff had access to computers, so all typing was centralised. The idea was that we were there to have ideas, not slave over a keyboard; though I think it was also to do with meanness about supplying the laptops.

Now I have to do it myself, and pay for the school's laptop out of my own salary, and type well. which I don't.

Which I don't. See what I mean?

YANBU.

My dad sent my sister and I on a course when we were 18 & 16.

It meant that when I was working during summer holidays at uni I was getting 8 quid an hour (no tax) - and my friends were earning as little as 2 quid an hour manning "fun"-fair turnstyles.

No matter what happens I will always be able to get a job as a secretary. Sometimes when walking in to an agency you get a big sigh and a "oh we've not got much work right now. How fast do you type?" When you say 90wpm you get work immediately.

I once read that a secretary, a hairdresser and a nurse will always find work.

YANBU! I am studying again at the ripe old age of 44 and my first assignment is due tomorrow. Thank f**k I learned to type at school in 1981!!

YANBU. Of all the things I learned at school/college, it's the one thing I use every day.

I'm a touch typist, used to be about 110wpm, now having to type everything with one hand as use my bfeeding time to go on mumsnet and typing like this is horrible, touch typing is fab!

It definately should be on the school ciriculum. Like other posters here I paid my way through university by typing. Maybe i'll get my girls to earn screen time by doing some typing excersises first.

I can now touch type on an AZERTY keyboard which is what they use in France. The trouble is when I go back to the QUERTY I forget and come out with a sentence of nonsense before I notice.