When I was a schoolboy, and then later a university student, I would treat a deadline (say for a homework or essay assignment) as advance warning of some sort of impending disaster.

I’d get ready days, even weeks, beforehand.

My essay would be completed and ready to hand in before most of my peers had even thought about beginning theirs…

I don’t think I ever missed anything, ever!

Though I probably wasn’t much fun to be around.

These days the situation is different (except that I’m still not much fun to be around…)

My Turkish teacher is back from her holidays and we’ve agreed a lesson this morning at 09.30.

It’s now 08.17, as I type this (08.43 as I read the first draft).

I have to finish this post for OnlineItalianClub.com, and then do at least something to prepare for the lesson, so as to get the most out of it.

I don’t recall the last time I did anything for my Turkish, but it was probably a couple of months ago.

As I said, the teacher was away, and lately I’ve been concentrating on Swedish, preparing as intensively as time allowed for last weekend’s Swedex A2 exam in Milan (another deadline…)

Likely I’ll find time, once I finish writing this, to read through the notes the teacher made about the lessons we did previously.

And make coffee…

But one thing I MUST do, given that it’s an online lesson and we’ll likely be exchanging notes in the ‘chat’ feature, is sort out my keyboard.

Since I started studying Swedish a couple of years ago, I learnt how to quickly change the keyboard on my laptop from Italian (its default) to Swedish.

And, ormai, it’s second nature to locate the Åå, Öö and Ää keys (I bet you’re impressed…)

I still have to look though, as I do for Italian. I only touch type in English.

But I know exactly WHERE to look!

With Turkish it’s a different story. It has a lot more ‘funny’ characters, and a lot of basic words depend on them.

There’s a character which sounds like ‘ch’, for example.

And two types of ‘i’ – one without the dot.

And so on.

So this is what I plan to do:

1. Switch the keyboard language (here goes…)
2. Type out every key on my ‘qwerty’ keboard, like this:

qwertyuıopğü
asdfghjklşi,
zxcvbnmöç.

3. Put the keyboard back to Italian (or otherwise it’s impossible to continue typing)
4. Copy and paste the above ‘keyboard map’ into a text file, or take a screenshot of it
5. Rename the file ‘Turkish Keyboard Layout!!’ and save it on my desktop, where I can find it instantly

There!

See?

When my lesson starts, I’ll be able to find the two types of ‘i’ without too much stress!

ı and i

The fırst ıs the normal ı and the second ıs the second key from the rıght ın the mıddle row: iiii!

And then ı have to remember to swıtch the keyboard back agaınö or odd thıngs wıll happenççç

There. Done!

Try the same trick with the Italian keyboard, why don’t you?

qwertyuiopè+
asdfghjklòàù
zxcvbnm,.-

It’s that middle line that’s so important, the final three characters, òàù, which on the English keyboard would be (wait, while I change keyboard again) ;’# (oh man, really?)

And right above the middle one, the à, you’ll find those two horrible accented e’s:

è (without the shift key) and
é (with the shift key)

Which should you use normally?

I have no idea, and many Italians will skip the problem anyway by typing e’ instead, so hiding their uncertainty by pretending that they don’t have the appropriate keyboard enabled.

Beh, the clock’s a-ticking (08.50 as I proof for the first time…)

Gotta go!

If you haven’t already done so, click this link to read/listen to yesterday’s ‘easy Italian news’, will you?

https://easyitaliannews.com/easyitaliannews-com-20-settembre-2018/

‘Book of the Week’ – Last orders please, ladies and gentlemen!

Here’s the usual, Friday, final reminder about this week’s half-price ‘Book of the Week’ easy-reader ebook:

‘Il grande pesce rosso‘.

I’ve sold fewer than normal copies this week, which is OK.

Perhaps it’s because it’s a story about a schoolboy who tells a lie and then can’t extricate himself.

Quite a painful memory…

More likely it’s due to the fact that everyone’s been listening to the ‘easy Italian news‘.

Which is, after all, free.

But if you HAD been planning to buy a copy, you’ll be happy to be reminded, right?

Especially given today’s theme of ‘deadlines’.

So, if you haven’t already done so, take a look at the free sample chapter (.pdf) to see if the level is right for you.

‘Il grande pesce rosso‘ is half price, that’s £3.99 instead of the usual £7.99, BUT ONLY UNTIL SUNDAY NIGHT.

(Or find something more challenging in our ebook catalog.)

A lunedì!

Buy the ‘BotW’ – £3.99 | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Browse shop

An extremely rare, and very brief, THURSDAY post from OnlineItalianClub.com.

Why?

Because this morning I published the Thursday edition of ‘easy Italian news’ at our new site EasyItalianNews.com.

Then a couple of hours later, I looked at the stats.

203 people have read/listened to the Tuesday edition so far today. About two thousand people saw it yesterday and the day before.

But only 41 have seen the Thursday edition, which is a shame as it’s good, and free!

We’ll be publishing each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday – in the morning, Italian time.

But if you wait for me to remind you, on Wednesday, Friday or Monday, it’ll already be ‘old news’.

You could set a note on your phone, so you don’t forget – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday!

Or ask your mother to remind you.

Or, and here’s an idea, you could fill out the little form in the top left-hand corner of the new website and receive an email each time a new ‘edition’ comes out.

Click here to read/listen to today’s ‘easy Italian news’:

https://easyitaliannews.com/easyitaliannews-com-20-settembre-2018/

A domani.