Learning how to type - Touch Typing Tips from a seasoned typist - 90s kids Tamil Nadu Typing Institute Experience

One of my greatest impediments to learning was that I did not know how to touch type on a computer keyboard. It is another matter that I learnt to play the musical keyboard, much before I learnt how to type on the computer keyboard. 

I was one of those 90s kids, me and my brother, were sent to typing classes during the summer holidays. My first typing institute experience was in my native, Tirunelveli. At that time, I would visit my maternal aunt who lived in Palayamkottai for the month long vacation.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palayamkottai  

      Pic (Old Manual Typewriter)(Thanks to Devanath for the image)

 https://pixabay.com/users/devanath-1785462/ 

However, in Tamil Nadu, we have to stand in a queue for everything. So, we were given slots for the typing classes, every day one hour in the afternoons. There was an instructor who would guide us and we were given booklets, which contained the exercises for the course. It was a typing beginner course and the year was year 2000. The fees per month was 50 Rs.

It was a Remington typewriter. And the way the type used to fly and made the etching on the paper via the ink ribbon was all so fascinating. The sound - oh, how can I forget that sound. Peck, Peck, Peck, Peck, Peck.... Ding... went the bell, signalling that I had reached the end of the line and I had to manually enter into the next line. And I had to unroll the ink ribbon, every time, the spindle ran out. There were other settings in the type writer, like for capital letters, I had to impress the Shift Key and the entire set of Uppercase letters came into action. There were also options given to set page margins and line spacing also. 

                                                        

I remember once, the typing instructor asking one of the students to go and buy raw banana chips for her. She then shared it with all the students attending that batch. Such a kind hearted woman. She was known for her excellent Tamil and English Typing skills. She had finished Typing Higher Grade Examination conducted by the Directorate for Technical Education, Government of Tamil Nadu. http://www.tndte.gov.in/site/ She was also well versed in imparting the knowledge she had gained. 

Earlier in year 2000, Jan or Feb, we got our first Personal Computer back home in Chennai. It was a costly affair. 50000 Rs. I still am amazed at my Dad and Mom for making that hefty a purchase, an investment for the family and for the education of their children. (Thumbs up to all the great dads and moms out there. You guys rock. Can't wait to be a parent myself.) So, I had picked up some bad typing habits while I tried to operate the computer. Delete option and backspace key - I had gotten so used to it, that it hampered my learning to type using the manual typewriter. Because, here I had to "strikeout" a mistake and there was no convenient way to correct one's errors. 

My typing instructor encouraged me to unlearn that bad habit and relearn to focus on getting the characters right the first time. She would ask me to practice the key strokes, row by row, and so did I. 

ASDFGF ;LKJHJ ASDFGF ;LKJHJ ASDFGF ;LKJHJ ASDFGF ;LKJHJ ASDFGF ;LKJHJ ASDFGF

I used to go on and on... I typed four pages in that one hour of class. Slowly, the letters were ingrained in my mind. And I was gradually developing muscle memory. But there came an abrupt halt to my learning curve, as I had to pack my bags and leave to Chennai after the summer vacation got over.

Once back at Chennai, I was so busy with school https://stjohnscbse.com/ and after school activities. I never found the time to go back to any typing institute. There was even one institute that my mom went to for typing classes which was nearby to our home. Not sure if it is still around in 2021, (the below link is from eight years ago)

https://www.yumpu.com/it/document/view/15669830/list-of-institutions-directorate-of-technical-education

It was called, CHRISTINA TECHNICAL INSTITUTE, 92 GREENWAYS ROAD, CHENNAI 600028.

So, with the basic knowledge acquired in Palayamkottai falling into disuse. I turned into a hunt and peck typist. Using only the two index fingers to type. However, some of my friends were able to churn out 30 wpm with just two fingers. I wondered how, but it never worked for me. 

I had a cousin brother who went by the name Robin. This guy made a career for himself in the Chennai Airport. He had one skill which he said helped him keep his job, and that was typing. Robin made a great impression on me, coming from my Father's side and being a first cousin. 

Another first cousin brother from my mother's side, Joel. He was also good at typing, In fact he accompanied me and my brother when we went to the typing classes in Palayamkottai. Being a native of Tirunelveli, he completed the course to gain enough skills to start typing. Joel, he was an academic superstar, who went on to study Automobile engineering at MIT, Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet, https://www.mitindia.edu/en/ the same campus where the famed Indian rocket scientist and former President of India, His Excellency, Prof. Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam studied in. Joel is now into Christian Ministry. 

And life went along, I finished school and entered college. https://www.loyolacollege.edu/ There were a few incidents that happened at college which emphasized the importance of typing. One was my friend Srini, (who would later open the door for me to work at Amazon.) he went to typing classes and finished Typing lower grade exam. But I was busy in my Piano classes https://www.museemusical.in/ and did not find time for typing. And there was a French Professor who in one of her lectures, underscored the importance of learning how to type. These incidents made an impression in me, but due to the demands placed on my time, I was not able to spur these impulses into actions or results in my life. 

After college, I entered Amazon (courtesy Srini - Thanks da).

Here, I had a TL (Team Lead) by the name Nithya Kannan, and she was good at typing. She often displayed with pride, how she could look away from the keyboard and type the words. At Amazon, my primary goal was to somehow get my degree, which was at the risk of getting discontinued. I had a few arrears. So basically, my two years at Amazon, I was living in constant fear of keeping the job and also the added pressure to clear my UG degree soon. 

Also, during my time at Amazon, I caught up with an old school friend of mine who answers to the name Karthikeyan Ganesan. An academic stalwart in my perception and an avid learner. He was a man of many parts, a polyglot or polymath, you can say. He was in Netherlands at that time. Delft, to be precise, doing his Masters. He was a Bio-medical engineer. We went to high school together and shared the same aspiration of becoming medical professionals. I gave up on that dream soon after, because of my attraction towards the uniformed services https://www.svpnpa.gov.in/. But he pursued the medical profession via an engineering degree at SSN https://www.ssn.edu.in/ and later transferred to an European University, now he is in Michigan University, USA.  https://lsa.umich.edu/psych/people/graduate-students/gkarthik.html 

One day, he put up a WPM status in Gtalk (yes, this story is that old!), yesteryear's equivalent of Whatsapp. 

There was no voice chat then and we had to type in the chat box. I pinged him and asked him about the status, he was into research and so was writing a lot (read typing) on the computer. So, he had an incentive to learn how to type fast. This again spurred me on my journey to learn typing. He used to type incredibly fast on that chat application. 

From Amazon, I took leave for New Delhi in 2012. To Old Rajinder Nagar, the Mecca of IAS Preparation. https://www.vajiramandravi.com/ Oh wow, just thinking of those days sets me on fire. With what break neck speed it went by! Here, I had a fellow aspirant by the name Sashi. He was from Tiruppur and he used to be good with computers. He ran Ubuntu https://ubuntu.com/ on his computer and could type really well. Sashi was an easy going and relaxed guy, he was of the kind that would demystify everything and disarm everyone with his impeccable sense of humour. Of all the characters, I mentioned above, this guy made the most impact on me, because, his story was like - "I did it in 20 days, because, I had to get a certificate to get admission in PSG college of Arts and Science, Coimbatore." https://www.psgcas.ac.in/ I was like, "What?, in 20 days???". This made a lasting impression on me. 

And as I was full time into learning, reading and studying those days. I asked him to guide me. He introduced me to goodtyping https://www.goodtyping.com/ . Dedicatedly, I started off with my lessons once again, and soon enough, I finished all the lessons. There were 30 odd lessons. And more importantly, I could finally touch type at around 30wpm. YES. A milestone. But this was just a small start. 

Later, me and Karthikeyan used to keep in touch, as he also was preparing for IAS Exam with Psychology as an optional. I used to ask him, how did he learn to type fast?. He gave me a tip, which was really useful. Just type newspaper articles. So, I had an Opera browser in my computer and there was an option to add notes in a pane while browsing the internet. 

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/v7-notes/

So, I would open the day's Hindu newspaper, or The Indian Express whatever, and started to type the article. I used to keep going without bothering about the mistakes. Because, unlike typing applications, there was no stopping me for accuracy. In retropect, this was actually a bad strategy, although we get volume in, the quality drops down. In typing, the mantra is, "Speed comes with accuracy". I should have paid more attention to accuracy for maximum gains. Nevertheless, it worked in some way and I got comfortable with typing more content.

In year 2014, I applied for a Content Writer post using the contact of one, David Appasamy sir. He was helping me out to reach out to an American Expat content creator Neil A. Miller, who ran a blog entitled, 

http://learningindia.in/about/

I prepared a resume and put in my WPM as 40 (as most jobs consider that as a requirement). However, I was only able to manage about 25 to 30 WPM. So my thought process was, "What if I get the interview call and I had to type in the exam?", I did not want to let David Appasamy sir down. He was my mentor at the Bible Study Fellowship, Santhome Class. https://www.bsfinternational.org/

He is Director - Strategy & Brand at Social Beat now. 

https://www.socialbeat.in/

At that time, he was working in a company called raising iBrows. It was located on CP Ramaswamy Road, near by Sangeetha Hotel. 

He encouraged me a lot during my struggle with unemployment. 

I used Quora https://www.quora.com/ a lot those days. And my natural inclination was to search there, "How to type faster" and I found an answer which mentioned,

https://www.keyhero.com/free-typing-test/

There began my long lasting relationship with Keyhero. Of all the typing test applications I had used so far, this one I liked the most. One because, it had a real time WPM calculator and an Accuracy Calculator. So it was like driving a car or riding a bike with an Odometer to keep a track of what is going on. 

I fell in love with this metric displayed side by side. And loved to see the progress. The graph, was so cool as it would plot our WPM as the quote went on. Also the quotes that they used as typing tests were also of good quality. KeyHero was my go to website during my time at work also, because it was not filtered by our office IT firewall. I used to work on it a lot. 

In year 2014. I was also doing my Masters. An MBA to be particular. And I had to write a thesis for the award of my degree. I was racking my brain trying to come up with a topic for my Project. I called up my friend Srini from Amazon for ideas. Being from E-Commerce background, he suggested something from E-Commerce. And so, I thought further and came up with a dissertation entitled - "How can Brick and Mortar BookStores use E-Commerce to leverage their business?". My biggest experience in typing came from writing this one hundred page thesis, myself. Yes, there were many shortcuts available. If, I paid 4000Rs, many centers in Anna Nagar or T Nagar offered to write the entire thesis for me. All I had to do was just submit the finished project. I thought, "Nah, not worth it"! Let me learn and do it myself. DIY MODE.

So, I took the path less trodden, the different path. I approached an MBA Professor at New College of Arts and Science. https://thenewcollege.edu.in/, he helped me develop a questionnaire for a mere 250 Rs charge, His name was Kadhar. I wonder if he is still a faculty there. I got his contact using JustDial. So, I prepared the questionnaire, got the responses, extrapolated the data in excel sheets, to visualise the numbers as graphs, pie-charts etc. And this was my first time where I also wrote a lot. 

By the end of my completing the MBA Project, which made me eligible for the award of my Post Graduate Degree in 2015, I had acquired my long cherished dream of the ability to type. It is a fundamental skill for a blogger in my opinion. It helps one to focus more on the thinking, instead of spending time hunting for keys to put down words on the screen. 

There are other stories of my friends who learnt to type which all played a part in my journey. Each one is fascinating. 

My friend Brinda who was instrumental in opening the doors for me to work at SPi (now Straive Technologies) was also good at typing and her story also was inspiring. 

Paul Smith, a copyeditor and co-worker at SPi who could effortlessly type at 90 wpm for hours is another inspiration. 

Tikoji Rao, who is made of the stuff legends are made of- also narrates his story of learning to type with poise and impeccable timing every time I ask him to. 

Most recently, I heard the story of my long-lost friend from Loyola, Ramesh Wilson, who narrated his story of how he learned to type with such flair. In just 25 days, he spent 8 hours each day on the typewriter and even carried the typewriter on a train to the RRB http://www.rrbcdg.gov.in/ exam centre in Chennai all the way from Tuticorin. He got the job. 

And there are hundred other stories that I have heard people narrate of how they acquired this particular skill alone. 

Each story is unique, and each experience kept teaching me vicariously. I constantly keep learning from them.

Love these super-long stories? Do follow my blog for more content like this. 

Time taken to write: Approx 3 to 4 hours. 

I Thank God for giving me all my friends, mentors, family relatives, and parents.

Resources to improve your typing: 

www.monkeytype.com (it has great UI)

www.keybr.com (It helps us to work on our weak spots)

www.typeracer.com (Gamification process - it is good for kids)

www.10fastfingers.com(It is simple and enables you to practice typing for 1 minute at a time)

www.keyhero.com (my all-time favorite)

www.typing.io (my newfound love - this website teaches us the overhead concept in typing, it adds a penalty for unproductive strokes. not only is "backspace" considered as unproductive, but the incorrectly typed letter is also an overhead because we have to go back and delete it. 

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