I’m part of a generation that didn’t learn to type as a teenager. There were no computers around and typing courses were for secretaries, exclusively girls (disclaimer: we’re talking 1970s here). I ”learnt” on a Hoverspeed VDU in a previous life as a travel agent. I then fumbled through a few years working in travel on reservation systems that didn’t really require typing skills, just a few lines of commands that never changed. I didn’t do any word processing so I could get away with it.
Useless typist
So my typing is useless. Let’s be generous and say I use three fingers (OK, perhaps four). On a good day I’m slow and I’m very grateful for the spell checker because I can guarantee a typo rate of one a sentence.
When I came to translating in 1996, I was “typing” with 3 fingers. I thought that was quite adequate at first and used to spend hours slaving away at my machine to do the most modest of jobs. I only had me to support but looking back I used to spend hours working for only a modest income. The days, unfortunately, are only 24 hours long.
Is voice recognition the answer?
More recently my 3 finger typing skills have been replaced by a microphone and a voice recognition system. That has enabled me to dictate up to 10,000 words on a good (long) day. The problem is that it’s not always very accurate. Not only is it sensitive to computer speed and performance but also posture and fatigue in the voice.
It has little idiosyncrasies. There are some words that it won’t recognise like “dimension” and it’s useless at acronyms, especially of they have more than 3 letters. Once you’ve spent a day with a microphone wrapped around your head, believe me, it hurts. I sympathise with call centre operators across the world. Although not with call centres, they’re annoying, pesky things
Mavis Beacon is my muse
So I’m learning to touch type. Voice recognition software is a false friend. It gives me the illusion of productivity but it makes errors that I have to correct and on a bad day I don’t even see.
I’m not sure what to make of Mavis Beacon. Her product is a bit of a roller coaster, she talks to me every time I open it up. She hectors and patronises me a bit. When I do really badly, she says I should practice and she’s a stickler for accuracy. But for now, she’s my only muse and I and will come out of the experience with a new skill.
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