• You are not logged in.
  • Index
  • Experiences
  • a Taiwanese girl's experience with Colemak & needs some advice

    a Taiwanese girl's experience with Colemak & needs some advice

    • Started by nthealligator
    • 17 Replies:
    • Reputation: 2
    • Registered: 01-Oct-2017
    • Posts: 3

    Hello all,
    I'd love to share my experience with you guys! I'm Taiwanese, my native language is Mandarin Chinese, and now I'm currently a 1L in a law school in the  U.S. I've been using Colemak for 7 months: I started to transition from qwerty in March 2017 (then typing 40wpm on Qwrety). With around 40 hours practice on https://www.keybr.com/, I reached 60wpm. Now I'm typing 60-70 wpm. (all tested on typeracer.com). I cannot express how much I love colemak, and I'd love to hear about your experiences in increasing speed from 60wpm to above!

    Offline
    • 1
    • Reputation: 210
    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,343

    Welcome! ^_^

    To get above 60 WPM, I used Amphetype a lot to type books with. This gives you a lot of mileage which drills in the most common words and combos, without being boring. When I mistype a word, I try to always use Ctrl+Back (or rather, Extend+T+O) to delete the whole word so I can type the whole word right thereafter.

    The Typing Of The Dead can also be fun for drilling.

    Last edited by DreymaR (01-Oct-2017 17:29:33)

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

    Offline
    • 1
    • Reputation: 1
    • Registered: 07-Jan-2018
    • Posts: 19

    臺灣人你好!我也是臺灣人!在這個論壇上看到臺灣人的感覺真的很奇妙!

    English translation said:

    Hello there, Taiwanese girl! I am also Taiwanese! It feels so amazing to meet a Taiwanese person at this forum.

    Last edited by LawLombie (03-Mar-2018 11:36:23)
    Offline
    • 1
    • Reputation: 210
    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
    • Posts: 5,343

    ^_^

    *** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
    *** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 1
    • From: New York, New York
    • Registered: 22-Nov-2008
    • Posts: 129

    One thing I liked to do, which was weird so tended to do when I was alone, when first learning Colemak:
    Listen to some songs with not so fast lyrics and type them out on a table or your lap with fingers only imagining where the letters are.

    Songs are repetitive and also give you a sense of rhythm. This technique gives you a great sense of the layout independent of hardware.

    Necessarily use the right fingers, but you don't need a physical keyboard to practice.

    ---

    Additionally you can do it while watching TV or videos. Pretend you're a crappy stenographer. You can skip 2/3 or so of the content and still get great practice.

    Last edited by juice43 (03-Mar-2018 20:41:39)

    Colemak typist

    Offline
    • 1
    • Reputation: 21
    • Registered: 08-Oct-2017
    • Posts: 223
    juice43 said:

    Additionally you can do it while watching TV or videos. Pretend you're a crappy stenographer. You can skip 2/3 or so of the content and still get great practice.

    I tend to do that when I practice my gregg stenography skills, so it won't flow as well on a keyboard :p

    LawLombie said:

    臺灣人你好!我也是臺灣人!在這個論壇上看到臺灣人的感覺真的很奇妙!

    That's always such a great feeling :) That reminds me, I really have to get around to learning one of the chinese langauges (probably mandarin) :)

    Offline
    • 1
    • Reputation: 2
    • Registered: 01-Oct-2017
    • Posts: 3
    LawLombie said:

    臺灣人你好!我也是臺灣人!在這個論壇上看到臺灣人的感覺真的很奇妙!

    English translation said:

    Hello there, Taiwanese girl! I am also Taiwanese! It feels so amazing to meet a Taiwanese person at this forum.

    你好!我換了輸入法快一年,剛換就快了不少呢!歡迎交流~~

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 05-Mar-2018
    • Posts: 4

    Hello guys. When you use colemak with Chinese, which input method do you guys use? pinyin or wubi xing? thank you.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 0
    • Registered: 05-Mar-2018
    • Posts: 4
    nthealligator said:
    LawLombie said:

    臺灣人你好!我也是臺灣人!在這個論壇上看到臺灣人的感覺真的很奇妙!

    你好!我換了輸入法快一年,剛換就快了不少呢!歡迎交流~~

    Hello. do you use pinyin or wubi xing?  can you share a bit ? thank you.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 1
    • Registered: 07-Jan-2018
    • Posts: 19
    DavisXie said:

    Hello. do you use pinyin or wubi xing?  can you share a bit ? thank you.

    I use Bopomofo.ㄅㄆㄇㄈ

    images
    below
    https://www.google.com.tw/search?safe=a … 3D#imgrc=_
    I do not use Colemak to input Chinese.

    Last edited by LawLombie (06-Mar-2018 12:25:51)
    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 1
    • Registered: 07-Jan-2018
    • Posts: 19

    嗯,好的。我會跟你(nthealligator)多多交流。

    English Translation said:

    Um, okay. I will communicate with you (nthealligator) more.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 1
    • Registered: 07-Jan-2018
    • Posts: 19
    sotolf said:
    LawLombie said:

    臺灣人你好!我也是臺灣人!在這個論壇上看到臺灣人的感覺真的很奇妙!

    That's always such a great feeling :) That reminds me, I really have to get around to learning one of the chinese langauges (probably mandarin) :)

    I think you should start with Chinese (Simplified) 简体中文 because that is what China uses.

    Last edited by LawLombie (06-Mar-2018 12:35:50)
    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 21
    • Registered: 08-Oct-2017
    • Posts: 223
    LawLombie said:
    sotolf said:

    That's always such a great feeling :) That reminds me, I really have to get around to learning one of the chinese langauges (probably mandarin) :)

    I think you should start with Chinese (Simplified) 简体中文 because that is what China uses.

    I've been learning Japanese which is differently simplified often, I kind of find it easier to go from traditional to simplified than in the other direction.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 1
    • Registered: 07-Jan-2018
    • Posts: 19
    sotolf said:

    I've been learning Japanese which is differently simplified often, I kind of find it easier to go from traditional to simplified than in the other direction.

    Cool! ^_^
    Btw, I really think that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. So, if you're gonna start with Chinese (Traditional), you'd better take a trip to Taiwan or live there for a few months.

    Last edited by LawLombie (06-Mar-2018 23:42:18)
    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 21
    • Registered: 08-Oct-2017
    • Posts: 223
    LawLombie said:

    Cool! ^_^
    Btw, I really think that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. So, if you're gonna start with Chinese (Traditional), you'd better take a trip to Taiwan or live there for a few months.

    Well, immersion works, but only when you have at least a bit of a grounding in the language. Going in totally blind will get you nowhere, I've found that the best is to have around a B1-B2 understanding of a language before you really will get anything out of it. I would love to go a couple of months to Taiwan, but I don't really think that work will really give me two months of vacation to do it in the nearest future ;)

    It seems like learning material is more focused on using simplified characters though, so maybe I'll go in that direction. The chinese languages are really interesting though, so I'd love to at least get more a grip on one of them, mandarin will probably be the most useful one for someone like me. I guess that Taiwan also has quite a  lot of regional languages.

    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 1
    • Registered: 07-Jan-2018
    • Posts: 19
    sotolf said:
    LawLombie said:

    Cool! ^_^
    Btw, I really think that the best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. So, if you're gonna start with Chinese (Traditional), you'd better take a trip to Taiwan or live there for a few months.

    Well, immersion works, but only when you have at least a bit of a grounding in the language. Going in totally blind will get you nowhere, I've found that the best is to have a B1-B2 understanding of a language before you really will get anything out of it. I would love to go a couple of months to Taiwan, but I don't really think that work will really give me two months of vacation to do it in the nearest future ;)

    It seems like learning material is more focused on using simplified characters though, so maybe I'll go in that direction. The Chinese languages are really interesting though, so I'd love to at least get more a grip on one of them, mandarin will probably be the most useful one for someone like me. I guess that Taiwan also has quite a lot of regional languages.

    Okay, I admit that I've forgotten that you still need to have some Chinese basics before going to Taiwan. But it still helps a lot when you go there!
    If you decided to learn Chinese (Simplified) at the end, you'd want to go to China, but I don't know much about China so don't ask me to help your trip to China.
    Leaning Chinese really makes you very competitive because Chinese travelers are flooding the world. It's like... don't you see a lot of Chinese travelers in your country? If you are a cashier or a person that works in a shop or restaurant, then speaking Chinese helps you to get more salary.
    Hope this helps. :D

    Last edited by LawLombie (07-Mar-2018 13:31:28)
    Offline
    • 0
    • Reputation: 2
    • Registered: 01-Oct-2017
    • Posts: 3

    hmm this thread is becoming about learning Chinese :D:lol: if possible, I'd like to hear how you guys improve typing speed!

    Offline
    • 1
    • Reputation: 21
    • Registered: 08-Oct-2017
    • Posts: 223

    There are a lot of threads about that around. And if you want that, share your story, and steer the thread into something that you find more fitting ;)

    Offline
    • 0
      • Index
      • Experiences
      • a Taiwanese girl's experience with Colemak & needs some advice