I had fun doing a typing test the other day.  There are quite a few Internet sites that do them and I came out with the score of 34 words per minute.  That is not too bad, I never did typing at school or University (although I wish I had) and I type with two fingers only.  People who type with two fingers are generally people who don’t know how to touch type, so we spend our time looking at the keyboard, which makes it hard to do well when the test requires you to actually look at the screen and touch type.  

I still think 34 words per minute is pretty fast with two fingers only and I really regret that I have never taken the time to teach myself or go on a course to use all 10 fingers, because I think typing is an essential skill.  I still believe that eventually voice dictation software will surpass it, but that has been a slow route so far and while I still use Dragon Naturally Speaking now and then, and it is pretty accurate, I just find it cumbersome, particularly of course whenever you forget to switch off the microphone and you carry on talking and it types everything all over the document you are working on!  If I have lots of e-mails to go through, where I want to give staff two or three line replies, sometimes I will then hook up the Dragon Naturally Speaking and dictate away, but I don’t find it practical for my letters to clients.  I don’t know whether schools teach typing now, and in some ways it is absolutely outrageous that it used to be a “girl’s subject” and so in this day and age where we all need to type most men are far slower.  I know it has also been regarded as a non-academic subject, but I would regard it as an essential life skill, and have it right up there, just after learning to brush and floss your teeth!  What is your typing speed and do you touch type with 10 fingers – and if so, did you learn it at school?