Can you take Shorthand?

[Beanie]

This actually was inspired by a PM that I wrote Snoopy this afternoon...She told me it was hard to find a secretary that can still do Shorthand, so I am wondering now, can you do this? I took this in High School and it has always stayed with me, although I never use it anymore.

Anyone else know how to do Shorthand?

 

[Muffin]

I took a shorthand class, but never used it. I couldn't take shorthand now to save my life.

 

[Steve H.]

Does anyone use shorthand anymore??? I thought the invention of the hand-held tape recorder kind of made it obsolete?

 

[caitycaity]

i don't understand what the point of shorthand is these days. like steve mentioned, it seems like there are other more efficient and less costly ways to accomplish the same thing.

i can guarantee you one thing though, in 20 years finding someone to do shorthand is going to be impossible. i don't know anyone in my generation who knows it and i haven't heard of any place that still teaches it.

 

[December99]

In place of shorthand they teach speed writing! Haven't taken either but interested in taking speed writing sometime - although I just invented my own - as long as I can read it and decifer - it's fine!!!

 

[swanmom]

CaityCaity,
I have to disagree. I'm in my 40's and I learned shorthand in high school. I used it in my first couple of jobs right out of high school but, more importantly, I've use it to take notes in college.
Then, in graduate school, I found it invaluable in taking notes. Not only was I able to take notes more quickly but classmates often 'borrowed' mine because I had more of what the professor had said than anyone. Then later, as an educational psychologist, I often had to take notes regarding clients I was testing. It was great to be able to write my confidential observations without be concerned that they could be read by someone who wasn't supposed to read them. Since I have used it in one way or another since high school, I still remember it and have found it to be really helpful!

 

[caitycaity]

i didn't say it wasn't helpful. i just think there are easier ways to accomplish the same thing. i'm glad you have something that works for you though.

99 -- i've thought about taken speedwriting before. i also use my own version of it. LOL

 

[snoopy]

Yep, I've been searching high and low for a secretary who takes shorthand (or speed writing would do) but haven't been very successful. Some people I telephone screened used it in high school, but high school for them was 20 years ago and they haven't used it since.

The executive who I am hiring the secretary for is insistent that she take shorthand. His former secretary of 30 years just retired, and she took shorthand, and he wants his new secretary to take it as well. I talked to him about using a tape recorder but he wouldn't hear of it. I did finally contact a temp agency that is sending me over a few people next week who use shorthand, so we'll see.

BTW, I never took shorthand. I remember them offering it in high school, though.

 

[Ranatra]

I had a couple years of shorthand in High School and used it on my job until I quit to raise my kids. I use it mostly now just to jot down quick notes for myself, take notes in church, meetings, Bible Study. I don't imagine they use it much in the workplace these days.

 

[TimeforMe]

I can, I can! I, too, am in my EARLY 40's and learned in high school. I have used it for every job I ever had except for my current one. It actually was an edge in many interviews. At one time I worked for attorneys and used it everyday even though we also had a dictaphone. There are many people (bosses) who prefer it. It is, however, becoming obsolete and I feel a little of a dinosaur admitting I know it.

Too bad I didn't live closer snoops. I've not been crazy about my present job lately.

 

[Mickey Nut 50]

I too two yers of shorthand in high school, and was pretty good at it. I only used it very infrequently at my jobs out of high school, and when we were first married.

When I went back to work 3 years ago (after being a stay at home mom), I never mentioned, verbally or on my application, that I knew shorthand. The second day on the "new" job, my boss called me in his office and said bring a notepad. I sat down and he started rattling off a memo! My shorthand kicked in, but wow! was it ever poor!!!! I could only translate some of it, and he had to fill in the blanks. I asked him how he knew I knew shorthand. He said, "You're the right age for having taken it in high school, and considering what kind of secretarial jobs you've had, I just knew." What he didn't know was as I graduated, the tape machines came on the scene full force, so there wasn't much opportunity to really get good at it.

Needless to say, I don't do the shorthand bit anymore. After all, I've been out of high school for 35 years, and up until the time he dictated that memo, hadn't really taken shorthand in 32 years.

I use it now expecially at Christmas time - I write everyone's gifts down on a list - in shorthand! Drives my boys nuts! I still use it for myself, and sometimes when I'm taking a phone message from someone who talks too fast.

 

[Amy]

I still use shorthand!! I'm 43, learned it in high school, got better in business school, been working for lawyers for almost 25 years and I use it pretty much every day. The partner I work for still likes to dictate; drives me nuts to sit there while he thinks or looks thru papers to find something. But he refuses to use a dictaphone. The secretarial supervisor told me to try to talk him into using a dictaphone instead of wasting my time, but he won't hear of it.

We have over 300 secretaries, and I'll bet there are maybe only 10 of us who still use shorthand. I'm part of a dying breed!

 

[Nutsy]

Well, I don't know how good it would be or how much of it I could read back, but I can still do it a bit.

I did it in high school & when I got a job by boss used a dictaphone, so there went my shorthand.

Swanmom!! Good on you for using it to your best advantage. It is a real bonus that you can use it in the ways you do. I can see a real advantage in using it to take notes in class.........you would get almost if not all of what was said. GOOD ON YOU!!

 

[dizneenut]

I took 2 years of shorthand in high school. Couldn't take shorthand at all now, though.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Katharine Gibbs has a school at Tyson's Corner in VA. They should have a placement office that could help if you don't find someone suitable through your agency. I had a year of shorthand in high school, then a ton at Gibbs during my 2 years there. I still remember it, but I was never any good at keeping up to speed! It seemed the girls who could take it quickly got the jobs that didn't require it! LOL! I had it for a while, and it was the reason I left a couple jobs. I HATED shorthand! Good luck!

 

[Pin Wizard]

My sister had gone to Gibbs a few years before me. After she moved to VA, we used to write letters back and forth in shorthand.

 

[nativetxn]

Nope, never learned how to use shorthand

 

[Beanie]

Originally posted by Pin Wizard
My sister had gone to Gibbs a few years before me. After she moved to VA, we used to write letters back and forth in shorthand.

LOL Sandy, my sister is 6 years older than me and as soon as I took my first year of Shorthand in High School, she always wrote to me in it so I could practice! It was fun!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Marie used shorthand for about 12 years while she did secretarial work in the 60's and 70's until she became a SAHM. I am confident with a little brushing up she would be able to do it as well as she did then. I think it was Gregg.

 

[paras4ri]

My mom still can but she's been retired for a while now. I think dictaphones....followed by laptops has made it a dying art. Personally I think I write better doing it on a keyboard and revising as I type.
DH's office (very small) still uses dictaphones, mostly because each attorney doesn't have their own pc or laptop.