Typing Russian - how easy it is now, in 21st century

[PaulUSA]

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The question of typing Cyrillic letters arises often enough, for example, there is a logical and 100% correct note about Cyrillic alphabet (in the thread Language):

Originally Posted by Voyager13b

... as a native English speaker, it really pisses me off to read a post where it is obvious that the author took the time to understand Russian language, yet can only express it through transliteration to broken English text.
I have read many renditions of the same thought in translit fashion, and have always found it to be tougher to understand than the same thought written in proper Cyrillic.

Maybe it's too much to ask, but if a person accepts the challenge of learnng Russian, why not go for it all, and become comfortable with the alphabet that brings those Russian sounds to life?

The above is 100% correct when we are talking about communication between people - in a forum, via e-mail, etc. - it is AUFUL to use 'broken English'
(such as say "schitayu" or, from a Russian version of "Alisa in Wonderworld", "ya lyublyu zaschischayuschixsya" )
instead of a native alphabet there (may be Ok in teaching book, etc., but not in communications):

imagine a Czech or Greek or French language forum in the US where a member starts to use English letters instead of a national alphabet!!!
S/he will quickly learn a lot of 'bad words' in the forum's language - people would be VERY angry that some one uses "broken English" thus insulting others and the language!

Yes, back in 'dark ages of Internet' - say in 1996-97, when e-mail servers often were "7-bit only, US English-only", people in Europe accepted that sad fact that they have to use English letters instead of their native 8-bit letters. But those times are long gone! If a US company uses such server nowadays and tries to comminucate with say possible French customers, then such company will loose its business there at once - unlike 1995-96, people in France would NOT tolerate if someone insults their alphabet!

But Cyrillic (Russian) letters are the same 8-bit letters as French or German ones, so there is NO technical reasons to avoid using them!

As for client software there is NO difference (same effort is required and it is EASY) in activation Russian typing support and say Czech, Polish or Greek support under an US English version of MS Windows (or even Japanese version of MS Windows ) and as I mentioned no one tries to use 'broken English' instead of native alphabet on a Greek or Czech forum here, in US.

That is, now, in this century there is absolutely NO reasons to use - in forums, e-mail, etc. -
transliteration (='broken English") instead of Cyrillic letters - progress never stops, what was very hard in 1997 is very easy now!

************ Practical advices/information about Cyrillic typing

Based on discussions about that subject in 30+ Russian language forums in 20+ countries - from Australia to Spain (I have such hobby - "Cyrillic outside Russia" - since 1995, and follow all the news in this area).

Let's consider two very different cases - in both cases it is EASY to type Cyrillic:

(1) your own computer at home where you can activate Russian keyboard tools for typing via Control Panel (or it is a computer at work, but you have Administrative Rights so can do the same via Control Panel - activate system keyboard support for Russian)

(2) 'public place computer' where you can NOT activate system keyboard support for Russian - for example, Internet-cafe in France during your vacation

****

(1) Computer where you can activate system keyboard support for Russian

People in the former USSR and abroad use two ways to type in Russian
(while switching system keyboard to the "RU" mode):

• Some type using Standard layout of Russian letters - they either memorized that layout or use stickers with Russian letters applied to their keyboard
  
  How to do it via Control Panel of English version fo MS Windows 95/98/ME and NT/2000/XP/2003 is covered in the
  "Typing Russian on any keyboard" section of my instructional site http://RusWin.net
  
  
• Other people do NOT use that Standard layout -
  for various reasons, for example, they never knew it because did not deal with computers before leaving Russia or they knew it but did not use for several years upon arrival to a new country and forgot where the letters are (and often cannot use stickers or such because they are at work).
  
  Such people earlier, in the last century typed using trasliteration, "broken English" for example, "privet" (because it was very hard back then to make a computer to let you type in Cyrillic) and when techonology made it much easier to input Cyrillic, they found a way to do it as they got used to:
  
  nowadays such people use different approach - they type in Russian (with the same system keyboard tools, no separate program is needed) in the same mode as they type say in English - getting letter 'A' of either by pressing a key with 'A' on it (while in "RU" and "EN" keyboard modes respectively), K - by pressing K, O-O, T-T, E-E, ... - it also helps to switch mentally from typing English (which we do MUCH more often than typing Russian) to typing Russian.
  
  This layout (don't know who was the original inventor) is known for several years and is called Phonetic (homophonic, transliterated) layout where, unlike Standard one, Russian 'F' is obtained by pressing 'F' key (not 'A' key as in Standard), Russian 'D' - by pressing 'D' key, Russian 'G' - by pressing 'G' key, etc.
  
  How to use such layout with regular system keyboard tools, as "RU" instead of a standard one?
  
  Easy, all takes (one time job) 2 minutes if you know Windows Ok as a user or 30 minutes if you are a computer novice
  (know from e-mails received), if you follow this instruction (for Windows 95/98/ME; NT/2000; XP/2003):
  
  ** Phonetic Russian layout for system keyboard
  
  *
  Note. That layout is modifiable as the above instruction explains, so you may re-position some letters if you don't like author's placement variant

****

(2) Computer where you can NOT activate system keyboard support for Russian

So you usually type on your own computer using either Standard or one of popular Phonetic layouts BUT now you are out of your own computer - on a vacation or business trip for example.

That is, you want to type in Russian (travel notes for Blog, e-mail, forum, etc) on a "public computer" say in a business center of a hotel.

It's easy nowadays, too - you do NOT need to learn any new method of input after you've paid for an hour of Internet access, no, you just go to a site of one of modern Russian Virtual Keyboards:

you can sit down and start typing at once as you get used to -
EXACTLY as you type on your own computer, with the same Standard or Phonetic layout -
using same keyboard-based input method (not by mouse! No one types at home using mouse)

In the past, it was not the case - people typed differently at home and on a "public computer" (for example, via mous or via problematic 'combinations' such as sch(shh?), yu(ju?), etc. often producing 'bad Cyrillic"), but technology improves and now it is possible to type the same way at home and outside of your home -
which is more logical - why would a person should type differently in these two situations?


There are several such modern Virtual Russian Keyboards, here is mine, the newest one (took into the consideration deficiencies of predecessors) that allow to "type as at home" with a Standard or Phonetic layout even if you travel in Europe and that "public computer"'s system keyboard mode is NOT "US English", but say in French ("FR") mode.
Main mode of typing there - "as at home", tha tis, using regular physical keyboard, but mouse-based input (by clicking on letters on the layout image) is also provided as a supplemental:


*************** http://Kbd.RusWin.net

This Virtual Cyrillic Keyboard works under Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla/Firefox, so people use it not just under "Windows-based public computer" but also under Mac, Linux, Solaris, etc.


************** Summary

It is EASY to input Cyrillic and not "broken English" in all of the following cases:

• a person got used to a Standard Russian layout
• a person does not know at all that Standard layout and got used to use (back in 1995-99) transliteration such as "privet"
• a person sits at her/his own computer where system support for Russian typing is enabled via Control Panel
• a person sits in an Internet-cafe in a rural France

That is, there is NO, absolutely NO excuse for using "broken English"-transliteration while communicating - again, no one does so on say Czech, Greek or French language forums...

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