| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Do you type as fast in your source language as in your target language? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
|
|---|
This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you type as fast in your source language as in your target language?".
This poll was originally submitted by Natalia Pedrosa. View the poll results »
| | | | Julian Holmes 
Japan
Local time: 14:36
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
| No way, José-san | Jun 7, 2016 |
The Japanese language has two syllabaries - hiragana and katakana - each with 50 syllables and there are 2,136 daily use Kanji or Chinese characters which contain lots of homonyms that must be carefully chosen and converted into the correct character when they are typed on a keyboard.
And, don't forget punctuation marks and symbols, too.
There is absolutely no way I am going to be able to type as fast as when I use 26 letters of the alphabet.  ... See more The Japanese language has two syllabaries - hiragana and katakana - each with 50 syllables and there are 2,136 daily use Kanji or Chinese characters which contain lots of homonyms that must be carefully chosen and converted into the correct character when they are typed on a keyboard.
And, don't forget punctuation marks and symbols, too.
There is absolutely no way I am going to be able to type as fast as when I use 26 letters of the alphabet. 
Even Japanese make mistakes when converting kana to Kanji characters, which is kind of comforting.  ▲ Collapse
| | | |
Julian Holmes wrote:
The Japanese language has two syllabaries - hiragana and katakana - each with 50 syllables and there are 2,136 daily use Kanji or Chinese characters which contain lots of homonyms that must be carefully chosen and converted into the correct character when they are typed on a keyboard.
And, don't forget punctuation marks and symbols, too.
Must be a nightmare tapping out texts on your mobile.
I find it hard enough dealing with three extra letters: åäö/æøå (in that order).
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 14:36
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
Did I omit to write that the total number of kanji is well over 50,000?
Any Kanji outside the statutory 2,136 daily use Kanji are regarded as non-standard, however, they often find their way into daily use, people's names, etc.
@Chris
Oh yes, it is a nightmare!
Added one line for clarification
Edited number
... See more Did I omit to write that the total number of kanji is well over 50,000?
Any Kanji outside the statutory 2,136 daily use Kanji are regarded as non-standard, however, they often find their way into daily use, people's names, etc.
@Chris
Oh yes, it is a nightmare!
Added one line for clarification
Edited number
[Edited at 2016-06-07 09:43 GMT]
[Edited at 2016-06-07 14:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
My source languages are English, French, Spanish and Italian and I translate exclusively into Portuguese. I can type quite fast in English and French (I don't think I ever tried typing in Spanish or in Italian...) but not as fast as in Portuguese.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 07:36
Spanish to English
+ ...
I don't type fast in any language. I've always beena 2-fingered, looking-at-keyboard, slow yet accurate typer. Nowadays I use Dragon for most things, so the occasional bout of typing is a welcome change rather than a daily grind. Not an issue chez moi.
[Edited at 2016-06-07 10:06 GMT]
| | | |
I actually trained as a bilingual secretary in English and Spanish. In order to graduate and certify under the program, we had to test at 15-minute sustained speeds of 120 wpm for English and 90 wpm in Spanish. It was generally recognized for all the students that Spanish was a little slower because of the accents and the fact that the qwerty keyboard was designed for English.
So it isn't because Spanish isn't my target language that I'm slower but rather because the process itself ... See more I actually trained as a bilingual secretary in English and Spanish. In order to graduate and certify under the program, we had to test at 15-minute sustained speeds of 120 wpm for English and 90 wpm in Spanish. It was generally recognized for all the students that Spanish was a little slower because of the accents and the fact that the qwerty keyboard was designed for English.
So it isn't because Spanish isn't my target language that I'm slower but rather because the process itself is slower. I'm even slower in Portuguese because of all the tildes over the vowels (the tilde requires an extra keystroke for uppercase and it is struck with the weakest finger), but I enjoy the artwork involved.
[Edited at 2016-06-07 10:46 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | |
I can type quite fast in English and Tamil. I have passed higher grade exams in English typing as well as Tamil typing. Got first class in both the exams.
| | |
|
|
|
Doan Quang
Vietnam
Local time: 12:36
Member
English to Vietnamese
| No 'faster' option | Jun 7, 2016 |
I do not see 'faster' option as my source language is English and my target language is Vietnamese.
Typing in Vietnamese much slower than that in English due to the diacritics and tone marks.
| | | | | Similar case for Chinese | Jun 7, 2016 |
Julian Holmes wrote: The Japanese language has two syllabaries - hiragana and katakana - each with 50 syllables and there are 2,136 daily use Kanji or Chinese characters which contain lots of homonyms that must be carefully chosen and converted into the correct character when they are typed on a keyboard. And, don't forget punctuation marks and symbols, too. There is absolutely no way I am going to be able to type as fast as when I use 26 letters of the alphabet. Even Japanese make mistakes when converting kana to Kanji characters, which is kind of comforting.
To type a Chinese character, we need to first type the corresponding Hanyu Pinyin (phonetic alphabets) and then scroll through the results (which can be a long list) given by the IME being used and select the correct, intended character. The same phonetic transcription can correspond to any of the four or five tones. There are also other Chinese IMEs that enable Chinese input via other methods (such as the stroke input method). Whichever way, every IME requires hitting the keyboard keys more than once to type a single character. Of course, I could type quite fast with a good Chinese IME that offers more advanced input options, but no matter how fast I go, it is still slower than typing the 26 letters of the alphabet directly without an IME when typing English. Besides, in any Chinese/English document pair, there are many more Chinese characters than English words. Many Chinese typos are a result of selecting the wrong character.
[Edited at 2016-06-07 11:15 GMT]
| | | | | Equally slow in both | Jun 7, 2016 |
I am a hopeless typist anyway, but am more or less equally fluent in both languages. I use a Danish adaptation of the Qwerty keyboard, with the three extra letters on the right. I type equally slowly in either language.
Planning what to say and typing in one flow helps to reduce the number of errors! I then have fewer typos to correct afterwards, which is what really takes time.
I very rarely type in ... See more I am a hopeless typist anyway, but am more or less equally fluent in both languages. I use a Danish adaptation of the Qwerty keyboard, with the three extra letters on the right. I type equally slowly in either language.
Planning what to say and typing in one flow helps to reduce the number of errors! I then have fewer typos to correct afterwards, which is what really takes time.
I very rarely type in any language other than English or Danish - I am not confident enough to write more than a few polite phrases in them these days, although I read four other languages fairly comfortably. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Katrin Bosse (X)
Germany
Local time: 07:36
Dutch to German
+ ...
| Voted "Yes", but truth is, mother tongue wins | Jun 7, 2016 |
My source languages are English and Dutch, I translate exclusively into German.
German has diacritical marks/letters (ä/ö/ü/ß) and "monster words" which I sometimes stumble over.
English has the advantage of no diactrical marks as well as shorter words which I find easier to hack out with high speed.
Dutch is a language I have written texts in for years and years, I feel very comfortable typing it.
.
.
.
.
I wrote the abo... See more My source languages are English and Dutch, I translate exclusively into German.
German has diacritical marks/letters (ä/ö/ü/ß) and "monster words" which I sometimes stumble over.
English has the advantage of no diactrical marks as well as shorter words which I find easier to hack out with high speed.
Dutch is a language I have written texts in for years and years, I feel very comfortable typing it.
.
.
.
.
I wrote the above and voted "Yes" before having put my abilities to the test. Now I know that I am still faster in German. Huh. Who would have thunk it. But speeds well above 300 CPM throughout (and for German occasionally above 400) put me at ease nonetheless...
Edited to remove typo.
[Bearbeitet am 2016-06-07 14:49 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Erzsébet Czopyk
Hungary
Local time: 07:36
Member (2006)
Russian to Hungarian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER | welcome to the club, Christine | Jun 7, 2016 |
Christine Andersen wrote: I am a hopeless typist anyway, but am more or less equally fluent in both languages. I use a Danish adaptation of the Qwerty keyboard, with the three extra letters on the right. I type equally slowly in either language. Planning what to say and typing in one flow helps to reduce the number of errors! I then have fewer typos to correct afterwards, which is what really takes time. I very rarely type in any language other than English or Danish - I am not confident enough to write more than a few polite phrases in them these days, although I read four other languages fairly comfortably.
hahaha, me the same. I am typing in Russian very slowly but I received a super Russian keyboard from the dearest Oleg Nenashev whom I remember each time...:) I do typical typos and sometimes I am humming the text which I type. I comfortably type and do funny typos at least in 5-6 languages (Russian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian... slavic languages are usually no problem, German and English was obligatory, Polish... just because I love it so much, Latvian, Latin). But I am the slowest in Latvian . What a shame. I use a very nice, small, printed "table for dummies" (covered with clear tape so it is durable), which I created during my stay in Kazakhstan, where it played a life-saving role in the course of my work. I have some codes and combinations set for specific characters made by my former colleague Adam.
| | | | Erzsébet Czopyk
Hungary
Local time: 07:36
Member (2006)
Russian to Hungarian
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
neilmac wrote:
I don't type fast in any language. I've always beena 2-fingered, looking-at-keyboard, slow yet accurate typer. Nowadays I use Dragon for most things, so the occasional bout of typing is a welcome change rather than a daily grind. Not an issue chez moi.
[Edited at 2016-06-07 10:06 GMT]
What is that Dragon??
| | | |
You rarely have to type in an accent when writing in English, so I suppose typing them for Spanish is going to make my typing slower, but the difference is insignificant. The problem comes when my computer is feeling sluggish, and lags behind my lightning fingers!
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: Do you type as fast in your source language as in your target language? | Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
| | Anycount & Translation Office 3000 | Translation Office 3000
Translation Office 3000 is an advanced accounting tool for freelance translators and small agencies. TO3000 easily and seamlessly integrates with the business life of professional freelance translators.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
