From what I found googling around it seems russian native speakers use another keyboard layout than the standard english querty one. I installed the layout on my computer but it seems hard to learn a whole new placement of the keys.
I think that in japanese and chinese you write with the querty layout and then you get a dropdown list and choose the characters. Is this something you can use for russian to?
Any comments from somebody who learned russian and also types it on their computer most welcome. I really tried searching for an answer but couldn’t come up with a good one.
I use a so-called “phonetic” Russian layout. That is, one that maps qwerty keys to phonetically similar letters in Russian:
n → н
l → л
t → т
and so on. Letters that have no direct equivalent tend to be mapped to letters that look similar to Latin ones:
ш → w
я → q
It makes typing in Russian rather easy. There are a couple of variations of this and you can download versions for all popular operating systems. I personally use Linux and I got hold of a phonetic layout on internet which I later expanded. If you’re interested, I can tell you where to download it.
If you use Windows, here’ are some instructions about how to install it: Russian keyboard and Type Russian: download Phonetic Russian Keyboard layout (transliterated, homophonic, photos) and Standard Russian Keyboard layout
MacOS offers a phonetic layout out of the box, if I remember correctly
The phonetic keyboard layout is frequently called “YAWERTY”. The variation I use varies slightly from what @ftornay describes (w = “в”, v = “Ж”, e.g.), but in either case it’s easy to use. I can type at speed in Russian without thinking about it. I use it on Linux, Windows, and Chrome OS. In each case you can switch keyboards easily with a special key sequence (which, unfortunately, is not the same on all my devices.)
The only place I have to use the standard Russian layout is on my Android phone. There very well could be a YAWERTY variant for Android, but it doesn’t matter too much since I cannot touch type on my phone’s screen anyway. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to become familiar with the native layout, and using my phone helps with that. I find the letters pretty quickly now.
@Ftornay, so you use Linux, too? I have more to admire you for now than just your language prowess.
Yes, I install Linux in all my computers as soon as I get hold of them. I have Ubuntu installed both at work and home. I’m actually fond of programming, especially in the “machine learning” field, so linux is a must but I also think is a superior os overall. The last non-linux device I owned was a Mac Pro and that’s where I began using a YAWERTY layaout.
The W for В version layout seems to me to be a “German” variant and I find it slightly confusing.
I also use the “standard” Russian layout on Android, of course, and I find it useful for the same reasons you point out.
The link I posted above names the differnt variants. Yours would be Yawert, all right, but there’s also yazhert, etc.
Mine is similar to the “Student” one
Thank you both for your replies. Interesting to hear about this. Learning to type with another keyboard layout reminds me about learning a whole new language! Do you know if russian native speakers switch between QWERTY layout and Cyrillic layout? That would make them “bilingual” in typing also =)
Sure, we use both QWERTY and ЙЦУКЕН layouts. I use Alt+Shift to switch between them.
I uesd to work with English layout for about 20 years. Now I live and work in Germany and have to use German keyboard layout at work and English one at home.
I’m not sure most of them are “bilingual” in that sense. In my book, that would mean that they can touch type fluently in both layouts. In my experience with Russian speakers they most seem to be able touch type at most in ЙЦУКЕН and they hunt for latin letters when they switch to QWERTY, the characters being written on each key.
Maybe Sergei could comment on this?
The keyboards have usually both Latin and Russian leters. It is possible to buy transparent stickers with Russian letters for those who baught a keyboard with only Latin letters.
It is hard for my wife to type in both Russian or Latin layouts. For me it does not matter. I even have no Russian stickers at work but I can type Russian because I remember where the Russian letters should be.
I have also laptops with English and with German layouts. It’s not so difficult to switch between al of them at all. As I made Belarusian content for LingQ, I used more than 2 layouts on the same laptop because I needed English, German, Russian and Belarusian. But it is not convenient to have more than 2 layouts because of switching between them. I always have 2 layouts (sometimes more) and I type in both layouts every day switching between them.
