Anglophone In France : The Keyboard Problem

I share your frustration

It feels wiered to type on a AWERTY keyboard after typing for years on a QWERTY keyboard, especially for the shortcut keys. Every time I did something wrong and needed the CTRL+Z rescue, I would accidentally close the tab by the ctrl+W. I also cannot count the number of times I typed 'Qpple' or 'Aueen'.

And I have a solution

In short, if you haven't already, try Canadian Multilingual Standard.

At first I tried adapting to the French keyboard, but after a while I gave up. There is really little reason to have to adjust to a different keyboard layout, in addition to all the adjustments that need to be made settling in France.

However obviously I cannot stay happy with an English keyboard, be it UK or US. I do need to type French, and that means typing all the accents. Trust me, I tried typing French without accents, and my classmates do not understand what I meant by 'C'est drole' or 'bon appetit'.

I mean, they probably understood me, they just pretend that they don't.

After trying out various layouts, I setteled down on the Canadian Multilingual Standard (CMS) keyboard. To be more precise, the ISO105 version (the most common). This keyboard is essentially an English(US) keyboard with the righthand side punctuation keys repurposed for accents. The majority of punctuations and other symbols available on English(US) keyboards can still be typed with the alternative grammar key (AltGr).

For people used to English keyboard, transitioning to the CMS keyboard is much easier than to the French AWERTY keyboard, since the majority of keys stay where they are. You just some more accents, which are nicely grouped together on the righthand side so your main keyflows are not at all interrupted.

The downside is that you need to memorise your keys : if you still need to look down on your keyboard to type, get a keyboard sticker, for personal computers, or a CMS keyboard layout printed on a A4 paper to be put in front of your keyboard as reference, which serves in schools and at workplaces. You will get rid of them shortly. For me the adjustment took two days. But I was typing ALOT, I mean.

The only downside on a CMS keyboard is it is difficult to type the symbol ```. If you need this odd stroke for whatever reason, for example, if you write a lot in markdown like myself, you may consider keeping the keyboard layout you are used to as an secondary option. For me I use an English(UK) keyboard when I code.

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