The summer before my Sophomore year in high school my mother insisted I learn to type with the same dedication that I was expected to remain a virgin till marriage. It was the 50s.
Her rationale: if I could type, I would always find work. I did the same thing with my daughter, but in today's world she says, if one can do payroll, there will always be a job somewhere. She still needs to type.
My mother was right. Between PR, marketing and journalistic jobs, I temped and my typing skills brought me a survivable (barely) wage.
Imagine my surprise when I moved to Europe and discovered France, Switzerland and Germany all had different keyboards.
Living on the French border, I bought my less expensive computer in France with a French keyboard. I used a Swiss keyboard at work. That meant I was using two different keyboards almost every day. Each time it took about ten minutes to adjust to the Q/A and numbers/ punctuation, etc. differences. After that I was typing away happily.
René, our IT guy, came into my office with a huge smile. He was what they would call a lovely chap, helpful, smiling, knowledgeable. "Good news, I can get you an American keyboard."
My heart sank. I pictured working on an American keyboard in the office, going home and using the time to write on my French keyboard while waiting for my Swiss boyfriend to pick me up and later that night I would once again use a Swiss keyboard. Three in one day...I may pride myself on flexibility including keyboards, but that was on the borderline of masochism.
I didn't want to hurt René's feelings.
"That is so thoughtful," I began and then explained. "Perhaps Jenny might appreciate it." Jenny was the only other American in the company.
The differences aren't huge, but they are enough that spell check on any of the systems are appreciated and we won't get into the differences in English/American spelling.
*It's a Swiss keyboard. Nothing is wrong with it.
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