How did you learn to type?

[Spyro]

I assume with Neopets and Deviantart. Also chatting on MSN, it's the earliest stuff I did that I can remember

 

[Radiating]

Our elemantry school teacher tried to teach us something called "homerow", albeit that class was the most the most useless thing ever. i really learned most from internet use like youtube when I was younger.

 

[Alakazam17]

In grade three we all had these little red typing devices that we had to use to "learn" how to type. It was complicated because they forced us to type while not looking at the keyboard. O_o

Ever since then I usually I don't care if I'm looking at the keyboard or not, because either way I type faster than the average person. My problem is instead "mental typos", a term I created to describe what happens when I'm thinking and typing at different speeds, and either type the wrong word or omit one entirely. xD

I've also began learning how to type in non-Latin alphabets, namely Cyrillic, Arabic, Devanagari, and Kana. With Cyrillic I made mnemonics to associate each character with the Latin one on my keyboard, but with the others I seem to have subconsciously adopted the same technique from grade three; learning one or two characters in the middle and remembering the others in relation to their distance from these.

 

[Kai]

I recall covering the basics during middle school then having a class focused on typing and computer functionality during junior high school.

 

[MarinaSpeaks]

I never learned how to type "properly", but that doesn't stop me from having a typing speed of like.. 110WPM or so.. xD It's very odd to me though thinking about it. My parents use the computer a lot too, yet their typing speed is so far faaaaaar below mine. >__> I'm actually REALLY baffled and confused by that. I do remember using this really really old program in school at one point called "Mavis Beacon" when I was like 6 years old, but really, my typing skills were entirely cultivated on their own. I'm also a pretty fast typist on my iphone keyboard too, so that's two things. Hehe :)

 

[Sawsbuck]

I still don't really know how to type (and I've failed a typing class)

 

[DeusPro]

It was a typing class in 7th grade. Pretty decent I guess, and we were able to play Kerbal Space Program after we finished each day. I now have about a 65-70 wpm speed, so that worked out.

 

[Dter ic]

Tried learning to touch type when I was younger but I've not been able to train my less dominant hand to touch type. ;/

 

[Sylphiel]

I remember taking computer classes in middle school that were meant to teach us to type using home row, and I remember playing various video games (not in school) that also tried teaching the same thing. Or at least one video game, I definitely remember Mario Teaches Typing.

As fun as some of those things were (kind of), I don't think any of that stuck. I still don't utilize the home row at all. I don't remember when this happened, but I realized that I had gotten to the point where I pretty much just knew where the keys were, and didn't have to stop to think about things when I typed. So I learned to type fast just because I memorized the keyboard layout, heh.

 

[Legobricks]

I would 'hunt & peck' individual keys, initially with one finger of one hand, then one finger of both hands, then the first two fingers of one then both, and so on with a speed increasing from both using more digits and becoming better with the ones I was already using.

 

[Zeffy]

I played a lot of Typer Shark when I was a kid. It got to the point that I've memorized where each letter is on the keyboard and I haven't forgotten since.

 

[mireka]

i used to play on my mom's old computer when i was reeeeaelly little, like 2 or 3
also when i went to elementary school we had "official" computer typing classes

 

[Lucario]

I type quicker than anyone else I know, and I never properly learned to type - it just came naturally to me from using computers for all my life.

 

[AkameTheBulbasaur]

What's interesting is (at least for English anyway) I remember pretty much exactly how I learned how to read and write, but I remember almost nothing about how I learned to type, even though that happened later than when I learned how to read.

Like one day I just suddenly knew how to type. *Shrugs*

We used some sort of typing program in computer class in lower school, but I barely remember it, and I didn't really follow the rules it gave me because I'm a rebel. I think I remember the teacher trying to convince me I'd never learn how to type properly or something. This same teacher told me not to write left handed.

Well jokes on her because not only can I type quickly and accurately with two fingers but I'm also ambidextrous. So I'm kind of glad I never listened to her, actually. xD

 

[Tsutarja]

What's interesting is (at least for English anyway) I remember pretty much exactly how I learned how to read and write, but I remember almost nothing about how I learned to type, even though that happened later than when I learned how to read.

Like one day I just suddenly knew how to type. *Shrugs*

We used some sort of typing program in computer class in lower school, but I barely remember it, and I didn't really follow the rules it gave me because I'm a rebel. I think I remember the teacher trying to convince me I'd never learn how to type properly or something. This same teacher told me not to write left handed.

Well jokes on her because not only can I type quickly and accurately with two fingers but I'm also ambidextrous. So I'm kind of glad I never listened to her, actually. xD

Do keep in mind that the proper way to type is with all of your fingers and not two of them, though. Like you, I can type pretty swiftly with just two fingers, but it's still not the "proper" way.

 

[AkameTheBulbasaur]

Do keep in mind that the proper way to type is with all of your fingers and not two of them, though. Like you, I can type pretty swiftly with just two fingers, but it's still not the "proper" way.

I know it's not the proper way, the point I was trying to make was about my teacher being presumptuous and assuming that because I didn't pick it up right away that I never would. Sorry if it wasn't clear, haha :)

I normally type with three fingers on each hand (if you count the thumb) because A. My current keyboards are all tiny and B. I lost the ability to properly use my last two fingers when typing sometime after fifth grade. I still don't know how it happened but I had to relearn how to type a little bit.

What about you? Do you normally type the real way and if so how long did it take for you to get it down to a reasonable level?