The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Main > Nothingland

Nothingland Something about nothing - game threads, diversions, time-wasters

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-07-2007, 04:36 PM   #1
Trilby
Slattern of the Swail
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 15,654
Did You Take Typing?

When I was a wee girl of fourteen the lovely nuns of my school felt I (and all my ilk) should learn to use the incredibly advanced machinery of the TYPEWRITER! I took actual CLASSES on TYPEWRITING! making margins, letter heads, huge, huge reference pages....man. What a sodding waste of time! I was v. down about being an idiot on my last paper (a "C") when I went to see my prof. who showed my one of HIS "C" papers written in 1973. It was Hilarious to see the indents of the type-written word! soooo old! even older than ME! HA!

did you ever take a typewriting class? Did it help you with keyboarding today? does it freak you out to see typecopy now?
__________________
In Barrie's play and novel, the roles of fairies are brief: they are allies to the Lost Boys, the source of fairy dust and ...They are portrayed as dangerous, whimsical and extremely clever but quite hedonistic.

"Shall I give you a kiss?" Peter asked and, jerking an acorn button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her.
—James Barrie


Wimminfolk they be tricksy. - ZenGum
Trilby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 04:52 PM   #2
melidasaur
Traded your soul for pogs.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Champaign, IL
Posts: 646
I took keyboarding in between my 8th grade and freshman year of high school. We learned all of that marginy stuff on the PC as well as how to type. I was hella pissed at my parents for making me spend my summer typing, but it has paid off in the long run - I can type fast and I'm fairly accurate. It was probably one of the best classes that I ever took.
__________________
I love England, what can I say?
melidasaur is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 04:53 PM   #3
Happy Monkey
I think this line's mostly filler.
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DC
Posts: 13,575
No typewriting, but in our half-hour-weekly computer class in elementary school, they made a few halfhearted attempts to do a few typing lessons, but we mostly played Wizard of Oz or Agent USA.

My mom does have a very nice cast iron typewriter that was a horror to use whenever I had to fill out a form, but I never had any lessons on it.
__________________
_________________
|...............| We live in the nick of times.
| Len 17, Wid 3 |
|_______________| [pics]
Happy Monkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 04:57 PM   #4
monster
I hear them call the tide
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Perpetual Chaos
Posts: 30,852
No, I refused so I could never end up as a secretary. (Also so I could take and extra O-level -typing was only a CSE. -they are old British exams taken at 16. O-levels were worth more in academic circles. This is where the idea of the OWLs came from in Harry Potter -O is for Ordinary). I got a typewriter and tried to teach myself a few years later, buy it didn't happen.

I wish I had learned to type back then. I'm teaching myself to touchtype now and it's so hard! (a) because things are easier to learn when you are young and (b) because I'm so fast at improper typing (four or five fingers and a thumb, eyes on the keyboard) that it's hard to make myself do it the slow, still-mistake-prone way. I have reached a speed plateau with the computer nerd method, though, so I must learn to touch-type if I am to stand any hope of saying all I want to say online before my fickle mind moves to the next topic.
__________________
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity Amelia Earhart
monster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 05:02 PM   #5
Cloud
...
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 8,360
Yes, all 7th graders in my school were required to take typewriting. On manual typewriters. In 1968. I sucked at it, too, which amazes me, because it's been an essential skill for me in my career and I now type 100 wpm (approx).

I never regarded it as a waste of time--certainly at that time it was before the age of computers, and now would equivalently be a keyboarding class. NOW it would be a waste of time--we DO still use typewriters, but mostly for forms and envelopes.

Knowing how to touch type is, however, certainly not a waste--essential, in my opinion.
__________________
"Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards!"
Cloud is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 05:04 PM   #6
rkzenrage
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Yup, and I enjoyed it. I think I was the only one.
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 05:43 PM   #7
footfootfoot
To shreds, you say?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: in the house and on the street-how many, many feet we meet!
Posts: 18,449
spent the summer learning, took the train to Greenwich,Ct every day for a month or two. By now, I am a keyboard looker, slow, but at least not single digit person.
__________________
The internet is a hateful stew of vomit you can never take completely seriously. - Her Fobs
footfootfoot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 07:23 PM   #8
glatt
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Arlington, VA
Posts: 27,717
Nope. And it shows. I'm painfully slow.
glatt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-07-2007, 08:23 PM   #9
bluecuracao
in a mood, not cupcake
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Philadelphia
Posts: 3,034
Yes, in 10th grade on an IBM Selectric. I'd also signed up for shorthand, but wisely dropped it at the last minute--what a waste of time that would have been! I was never a super fast typist, but good enough to land a few part-time office jobs throughout college. Now, it's like it never happened...I'm lucky if I type 10 wpm accurately.
bluecuracao is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2007, 01:20 AM   #10
freshnesschronic
Professor
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,555
Yeah in 4th and 5th grade we took the challenging Type to Learn then I just yeah, used the computer religiously and passed the high school proficiency test with 65 GWPM (gross words per minute) with 92% accuracy. My best was like sophomore year, I could type at just under 100 GWPM with 88% accuracy. Now with slang used in my IMs and spellcheck readily available and autofixing my college essays, it's probalby not as good but I'm still a damn good typer in my opinion.
freshnesschronic is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2007, 01:41 AM   #11
wolf
lobber of scimitars
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phila Burbs
Posts: 20,774
Nope, never formally learned to type. Just had to do it quickly for programming class assignments and developed my own special relationship with the keyboard. Then I worked in a setting where I had to do programming, data entry, and fill in for the secretaries as needed, so I learned to type from dictation on a tape. Spent four years doing medical transcription typing for the psychology department at the nuthouse, with occasional work for the medical director when her own administrative assistant was snowed under with work and couldn't type the prison notes or competency evaluation reports. Everything had to be done accurately and quickly. I use all the wrong fingers on the wrong keys, but have a pretty high degree of speed and accuracy. I'm slower now that I mostly type recreationally, but at one point I was doing 100-110 wpm.
__________________
wolf eht htiw og

"Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island

High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis
wolf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2007, 03:13 AM   #12
NoBoxes
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
I not only took typing, I took typing and crossmatching too!
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2007, 05:07 AM   #13
Sundae
polaroid of perfection
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 24,185
I had typing as part of my Pre-Journalism City & Guilds (I never made it past the Pre point when it came to journalism). It was my least favourite part of the course, because I already had a working relationship with the keyboard, and having to go back to "fingering" was incredibly frustrating.

I limped through the course (cheating when the tutor was on the other side of the room - and cheating no-one but myself) and lost most of it by the time I had my next job. About the only bit I retained was using my thumb for the space bar.

I type almost as fast as the other PAs and secretaries here - until they have a rush job on. Then they go into warp and I can't follow.
__________________
Life's hard you know, so strike a pose on a Cadillac
Sundae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2007, 06:55 AM   #14
Perry Winkle
Esnohplad Semaj Ton
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: A little south of sanity
Posts: 2,259
I had a semester in 7th and 8th grades.

My brother has never had a typing class and touch-types at about 140 wpm. He learned by playing First-Person Shooters (and yes, he types in complete words). It's funny to see him type because he doesn't use home row; you can see the influence of FPS keymaps on his hand positioning. It's hilarious.
Perry Winkle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-08-2007, 08:39 AM   #15
Shawnee123
Why, you're a regular Alfred E Einstein, ain't ya?
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 21,206
I took typing my senior year. Half the room had manual typewriters, the other half electric. Font choices were pica and elite.

Just like learning the basics of a proper basketball shot, that one class (which was more filler for me back then, having already taken my college prep classes; I believe that was my first study hall year ever too) taught me the basics of typing: where your fingers should go, etc. With the basics, then practice, you become better and faster as you go along.

Our typing teacher was not a well-liked teacher. She was a bit weird, and you know high school kids. I've often thought, though, that I should contact her and tell her how valuable that class turned out to be.
__________________
A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones who need the advice.
--Bill Cosby
Shawnee123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:54 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.