On a mobile device you shouldn't use either Colemak or QWERTY! My favourite for touch screens is MessagEase (with my "Colemakoid" mappings – see sig).

For typing one-handed you might want to look into mirrored keyboarding (again, see my sig topics) which is available with Colemak. It's a lot slower than 2-handed typing but quite fascinating!

The Caps key can be even more useful... ;-)

I've been typing on physical keyboards less than usual recently. I've noticed that despite using Qwerty on touch screens every day, my Qwerty typing on physical keyboards is deteriorating. It's sloppy, full of errors, and slow. Colemak on the other hand surprises me. I'm surprisingly accurate. I often find myself thinking, "How do I know where the keys are?" It's like they're a part of my subconscious.

That said, I'm still not typing more than 60 wpm. My usual physical layout is Japanese Qwerty (JIS), which is not ideal for typing in English, e.g., the spacebar and backspace are so small. On JIS, I type a calm and controlled 40 to 50 wpm. I could probably push myself beyond 60, but I feel no reason to rush. Is anyone else having these kinds of thoughts? I know everyone likes to tout speed, but what about experience, eh?

PS, my wpm is higher when I use my mechanical keyboard (US) with Cherry MX brown switches at home. The experience is also much better. I'd recommend anyone who types regularly to get a mechanical keyboard.

I mean comfort and ease of use, like UX design applied to a keyboard layout.

Or, use Tarmak! ;-)

You mentioned that you're currently using Colemak Portable on Windows at work. I perfer to use Ryan Heise's method provided I have access to the Internet. However, that's not important.

I, too, live in Japan and have been working as an ALT for quite some time. Up until now, I've always used my own laptop or tablet with a bluetooth keyboard; however, I will work as a Japanese-English translator for the new fiscal year. Assuming you're not an ALT like me, did you run into any problems trying to use Colemak on a work computer?

Seven years is quite some time indeed. I've been in the same prefecture for seven years! But the longest I worked at a school was for three years. If you want to do some freelance stuff, give Conyac a try. I signed up for it, but I haven't actually translated anything yet. I do get a lot of e-mails about stuff that need to be translated. It's first come first serve, though. If you have no formal experience, it could help your resume!

Thanks. I will try Portable Colemak. Is Caps Lock mapped to Backspace?