Typing vs. writing

This week, there have been a couple of meetings at work where I’ve had to take the notes by writing by pen. Especially after the second meeting where I had to write down a lot of notes, I started thinking of typing vs. writing.

When I was ten years old, beginning the fifth grade in primary school, my teacher said it’d be wise that I was taught to type on the computer. She based her opinion on the fact that I’m poor-sighted, so she said the skill could give me a lot of benefit in the future.

First I was excited about the idea, as already at that age I was excited to learn new things. But in practice, it meant that every Tuesday I had to spend an hour in the special needs teacher’s classroom. It was from one o’clock to two o’clock in the afternoon. And it was the only damn afternoon when the school ended at one o’clock. So, while the other students left for home I had to go to study typing. I’m grateful now that I had to. But by the time, as a kid, it really made me upset.

I can still remember how we started. The teacher told me that the fingers would be set on the keys in the way that the right forefinger would be on the F key and the left forefinger would be on the J key.

The first word I had to practice was Jaffa, which is the brand of a soda pop here: J with my left forefinger, A with my right little finger, the double F with my right forefinger, and A with my right little finger. Just after a couple of classes, I was totally thrilled. And after that, the teacher had to nearly kick me out of the classroom when it was two o’clock and the day ended for both of us.

My primary school teacher’s, who was my teacher from the first to the sixth grade, husband was blind. So, she really thought about my future considering my sight. Kids can’t really respect such things especially in a long term. But while getting older, I’ve come to respect it highly and deeply. I was blessed to have such a teacher. I couldn’t have had a better one.

Already for a long time, I’ve typed as fast as I speak. And I use all of my ten fingers when I type. I make very few errors while I type. And every time I make an error my left little finger automatically finds its way on the Back key to erase what I’ve typed wrong, and then I retype what I was supposed to type.

Even my mother, who worked as a word processor for many years before she became a secretary in the governmental institute she’s working for, has said that I type faster than her even if she’s been typing for many more years at work than me in general.

When I was in high school, I had a laptop in use in the courses. All the students in the classes were envious because I typed as fast as the teachers were speaking. So, needless to say, I had the best notes. The same happened in all the language course I took in Helsinki Adult College as well as when I studied for the business degree. I’ve also made benefit of the typing skill in my career. For example, when I was working as a poll interview and a sales representative, it was easy to type people’s opinions, the deals’ conditions, and all such things while the customers spoke. I never had to make lists with a few words only. I typed whole sentences and I was always praised by my bosses because of the skill of doing that.

But typing has caused one bad thing. My handwriting is really poor these days – it’s been poor already for many years. The simple reason is that every time I can choose I don’t even consider a second if I’d type or write. I type. I even type the shopping lists and print them instead of writing them down on a piece of paper.

I do feel quite ashamed to show what my handwriting is like if I’m honest. Even if there are lines on the paper I can’t really even stay inside them. Sometimes I keep joking that I should go back to the primary school and take a course of handwriting again.

The type of handwriting I really envy is my mother’s. It’s so clear but at the same time very pretty. Well, instead of the primary school course, I could ask if she agreed to give me a class or two. In that way, I’d get a very pretty handwriting.