Typing in Russian. . .

[wolfpuppy1]

I am trying to learn Russian, a favorite language of mine, and have been asked to type something in Russian. I know the answer, but I cannot enter it in the way that the site is asking because, of course, my keyboard is in English. This stops me cold as I cannot move ahead until I answer the question the way it wants me to, and I cannot.

I am sure that I am not the only one who has run into this problem. Is there a virtual keyboard somewhere that I am missing? I looked, but didn't see one. I even tried to see if there was one I could download on the internet and, while I found some, it wasn't clear how I could use it with this site. Anyway, if anyone has a solution (and I am sure there is an easy one that I just am not aware of), I would love to hear it. Thanks.

[__FrenchCamille_]

https://www.keybr.com/#!game

Further instructions :

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11435810/Cyrillic-typing-practice

I quite like this website for Russian typing

[WendelineM]

I learned touch typing in Russian in a week using this site: https://sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/keyboardingRU.php

[MetroWestJP]

Я тоже! It was easier than I thought it would be. It just took patience and lots of practice.

[Jason441147]

in the notes of the alphabet lesson, they have this comment posted to help you setup your russian keyboard: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11449014

[Dmitry722447]

you can buy russian keyboard stickers and you will memorize all letters per key.

[gatiquo]

It is possible to use the regular keyboard. It is just a matter of trial and error to use the correct combination of letters.

[LICA98]

you can just type the answers using Latin letters (like moya mama instead моя мама)

[Helena295273]

You can use translit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translit
There are a lot of Russians abroad that don't do blind typing and don't always have Russian keyboards, so there are a lot of sites that help to turn translit into Russian, like this one - http://translit.net/ .

[Susan681595]

There are likely better answers than mine, but I was having the same problem.

Using a touch screen will minimize this problem since the keyboard will visually change. I use a laptop in addition to my cell phone and my ipad.

However, if that is not an option, there are shortcuts that I've figured out, and I think it is better for my learning that I am figuring them out as I go. As I am recognizing the sounds themselves, and not just what the letters look like, I'm able to figure out what sound makes what symbol, and I type in those letters.
Example, ch will make the ч symbol. sh will make the ш symbol. sc will make the щ symbol.
It's a huge pain in the butt to struggle in those early lessons, but I think it works itself out as you learn.

In the meantime, as long as you actually know the symbol you need, you can also cut and paste the correct answer to get past the block.
Good luck ! :)

[edvandroasantos]

I did so: I printed out the letters of the Cyrillic keyboard and pasted it one by one on my physical keyboard. So I added the Russian layout in my PC configuration. Then just switch between the two keyboards. Did you get it?

eu fiz assim: imprimi as letras do teclado cirílico e colei, uma a uma, no meu teclado físico. Então adicionei o layout russo na configuração do meu PC. Depois é só ir aternando entre os dois teclados. Conseguiu entender?

[lucianosantos017]

I think it is the best way to learn, because after it will be typed naturally without seen the position on the keyboard. I did the same what you said! Cool!

[sibirsteve]

When I am too lazy to touch type, I type the transliteration into an online translation tool (Google Translate, etc.) and copy/paste the cyrillic text.

[MetroWestJP]

I gave up on the Russian course the first time I started taking it, because I either had to use the Windows character map (charmap.exe) on my PC to hunt down and copy & paste the Cyrillic characters to DuoLingo, or toggle to the Russian keyboard on my tablet and peck out the answers a letter at a time. For a speed typist like me, that was drudgery. I gave up and switched to Polish for a while. Then I figured out how to turn on the language bar on my PC and add the Russian keyboard, and I found a Russian website that offers free touch-typing lessons. Now I'm up to about 30 wpm in Russian. That's still slow for me, but it's such a relief just to be able to type in Russian and the lessons are zipping along. (I put Polish on the back burner.) The first Russian typing lesson in the course I took is here: https://sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/RU_lessons.php?lesson=1 . The only word I recognized on the site was "Отлично!" so I just changed the number at the end of the URL to navigate from lesson to lesson. I've heard people mention some way to toggle between Cyrillic and transliteration in the DouLingo Russian course, but I've never seen it on my PC or Android tablet. It may be an iPhone thing. For the language bar, I went into "Control Panel" and clicked on "Change keyboards or other input methods" under "Clock, Language, and Region", then on the "Keyboards and Languages" tab, I clicked on the "Change keyboards..." button, clicked on the "Add..." button, scrolled down and clicked on the "+" next to "Russian", then the "+" next to "Keyboard" and put a check mark in the box next to "Russian" (NOT "Russian (Typewriter)"), then clicked on "OK", clicked on the "Language Bar" tab, clicked on the "Docked in the taskbar" radio button, clicked on "OK" and closed the "Region and Language" panel and the "Control Panel". Now I can click on the "EN" or "RU" on my taskbar and click which language I want to type in, but it only changes the keyboard configuration for whatever window is "in focus" at the time it's changed. If I change it while I'm in DuoLingo, it doesn't change it for anything else I have open. I'm on Windows 7, by the way, so your configuration may be different. Удачи! :-)

[RussianMooWE]

I just go to the Official Russian Google (www.google.ru) which has a keyboard available next to the search bar. Also, if it isn't there (sometimes google will force the site to immediately change to english, and get rid of any russian keyboard or text) you can change it in settings to add it. This works with most languages, russian included.

[X-P]

You can always use the on screen keyboard of your respective operating system together with a russian language pack, regardless if mobile Android/iOS/MSW/Blackberry or a desktop OS.
On Win10 you just press WIN+Ctrl+O to start/stop the keyboard. Select the russian language pack via the selector in the taskbar.

[Wowa269009]

If you are using a computer you can open another window of your browser with this URL: https://www.apronus.com/internet/ruskey.htm write the text copy it and paste it into the field of the answer.

I hope this is useful for you. :-)

[lupa324770]

go to your notification screen you'll see a small keyboard on it when you use your keyboard to type. tap the small icon and from there you can select what language you want to use.

[blackie1050]

Same problem, so now I would like to quit the Russian and continue the French and Italian, but do not know how to delete the Russian.

[wolfpuppy1]

Just an update to my post here. I found, and am using, an online Russian keyboard that I can use to copy/paste answers to Duolingo with. The site is "RUSSTYPE.COM", without the quotes, of course. Nothing fancy, which suits me. Might even check out the other sites mentioned here, and thanks for that, by the way. Anyway, the problem is resolved, albeit by use of a convoluted way. Thanks again for the help. Very much appreciated.