How to approach the Russian keyboard?

I decided to write this article for those who are learning the Russian language and thinking of getting acquainted with the Russian computer keyboard. As a rule, students follow the standard path: they install the original keyboard layout ЙЦУКЕ, feel frustrated because they have no idea about the way letters are arranged on the keyboard and finally find the solution in the phonetic keyboard which allows them to use their touch typing skills with the Russian letters turned into the letters of the Latin alphabet. However, they never achieve more or less impressive speed or accuracy and if they happen to do the typing at another computer they feel helpless and tend to curse the Cyrillic whatsoever.

What is a phonetic keyboard?

Phonetic keyboard layout is the arrangement of the Cyrillic letters following the QWERTY layout. So, Russian Б coincides with the English B, Russian P with the English R, etc. Extra Cyrillic symbols are located on the vacant keys:

At the first sight it seems only logical: all letters follow the familiar pattern and the only problem is just getting used to the slightly changed QWERTY. Thus, the typist is relieved of the Cyrillic stress.

If you are an occasional Russian typist, this method will probably do. Phonetic layout is not usually included in the Windows regional and language settings list, but you can easily find free software which will fix the problem. For example, this one:

http://www.netchain.com/PhoneticLayout/ or any other.

However, this method has a number of disadvantages for the language learners and more intensive typists like translators, teachers, journalists, writers, etc. Let's list them here:

QWERTY layout was designed for the Latin alphabet, namely for the English language, thus it completely ignores the idiom of the Russian language, the frequency of letters, the rhythmical organization of the text which prevents you from reaching a decent speed.
Phonetic layout needs customizing what creates certain difficulties when you use another computer.
Russians never use such keyboards. If you happen to be in Russia, you will be expected to know ЙЦУКЕ.
You will hardly find a typing tutor to practice your typing skills for the phonetic layout in Russian.

Obviously, the most serious disadvantage is the first one. Let's look into it in more detail trying to answer the following question:

What makes an ideal keyboard layout?

The arrangement of letters on the keyboard is meant to provide convenience which entails accuracy and ensure high speed of typing if duly trained. The factors influencing the combination of accuracy and high speed are the following:

To ensure high speed of typing letter combinations should be typed by two hands in turn and preferably by different fingers.
The weakest fingers have to bear less tension by means of assigning rare letters to them. This will enable the typist to avoid the danger of quick fatigue or even RSI.
The most frequent letters are to be found in the most convenient positions: the middle row and the area of the index fingers as the strongest (and the longest) ones.
Frequent letter combinations are to be located within a convenient reach of fingers covering the minimum distance.

One important conclusion from these is that the ideal keyboard layout should be specifically tailored to the language in question. It means that there can't be any global keyboard layout, even if it is as famous as QWERTY.

Moreover, QWERTY is not in the least an ideal keyboard layout, there is much argument against it in favor of Dvorak layout which tries to take into account the most prominent aspects of a successful keyboard for the English language with its modifications for other European languages. Unfortunately, not for the Russian language. Yet. Partly because ЙЦУКЕ for the Russian language is much better than QWERTY for the English, though not ideal.

The heart of the QWERTY keyboard is centered round two most frequent letters in the Russian language: A and O. It means that fingers seldom move too far away from the center which saves time and effort of the typist.

Disadvantage? Advantage!

As we can see it, there is only one disadvantage to the necessity to use ЙЦУКЕ instead of the phonetic keyboard. And this is known very well to all students who want to do this: you have to learn touch typing almost afresh. However, with a good typing tutor with detailed instructions and good visuals this disadvantage can be easily turned into an enjoyable insight into the language you are learning.

Scientists have proven that motoric development contributes greatly to the language acquisition. Touch typing is just a kind of this motoric activity which allows students to literally key in some of the elements of grammar, vocabulary and even style. The effect, however, is likely to be experienced with the authentic typing tutor with specifically elaborated for this purpose tasks.

We have been keeping this in mind when designing our Russian course Solo on the Keyboard International. It paves the way to the traditional Russian keyboard layout and trains specific word and letter combinations. And we are going to continue our work in this direction, so welcome to try, to tell us your comments and share your experience.

In our view, it is sure worth a bit of effort to teach yourself the correct typing in Russian (ЙЦУКЕ) in order to have all the chances to type in this language as fluently as in your native tongue.

Advanced layout

One has to say that keyboard layout is a very conservative thing, so no matter how much we can speak about inaccuracies of Russian ЙЦУКЕ, most Russian people use it and are unlikely to switch to another one. However, there is one popular modification of the standard layout and it is known as Russian (typewriter). It can be easily found in the Windows list. The differences are scarce, but sometimes valuable.

(Pictures taken from: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/paulgor/mod_e.htm)

As you can see, the main difference is with punctuation marks: full stop and coma which are located in the upper row on 6 and 7 keys. It does save time on, say, using coma without the Shift key as in the standard layout.

Most typing tutors, however, focus on both layouts, so it's fully your choice which ЙЦУКЕ to use. With the necessity to type full-featured texts, keep up correspondence, etc. you will probably appreciate the coma advantage of the typewriter layout.

Final Comment

Many will say that a keyboard layout is not the most important thing in accurate and comfortable typing and will give priority to such factors as the correct hand positioning and a good keyboard. It is certainly true, however, why deny another convenience of typing if you have already got a suitable keyboard and you learned the correct hand positioning at school?

P. S. The Russian typing tutor for the ЙЦУКЕ layout Solo on the Keyboard International can be downloaded free for the trial period.

Good luck with your studies!