I learned en_US and tossed the other keyboard layouts that I had to learn before (German qwertz and later French azerty).
It was really worth it! It was difficult for 3 weeks. On Linux I use the US International AltGr Dead Keys layout, which I find very suitable because it allows me to write all the German, French and Turkish characters by composing
accents on them. On Windows this layout does not exist (but the simple US which is backward compatible for all ASCII characters is there) so
I had to find it on the net and install it manually.
The rational is, that in almost all non-English countries the US keyboard layout is
available and you can really quickly change to it (on windows it is LeftShift+LeftAlt) if you have to touch the keyboards of your colleagues. The pre-requisite is to be able to type blindly.
I took this decision when I had to work in different countries. It was a life changing experience.
If I knew it before I would never have learned azerty when I moved to France.
One problem though is to get computers with the US layout. In this regards Lenovo seems to be the only one that lets you chose the US layout.
It was really worth it! It was difficult for 3 weeks. On Linux I use the US International AltGr Dead Keys layout, which I find very suitable because it allows me to write all the German, French and Turkish characters by composing accents on them. On Windows this layout does not exist (but the simple US which is backward compatible for all ASCII characters is there) so I had to find it on the net and install it manually.
The rational is, that in almost all non-English countries the US keyboard layout is available and you can really quickly change to it (on windows it is LeftShift+LeftAlt) if you have to touch the keyboards of your colleagues. The pre-requisite is to be able to type blindly.
I took this decision when I had to work in different countries. It was a life changing experience. If I knew it before I would never have learned azerty when I moved to France.
One problem though is to get computers with the US layout. In this regards Lenovo seems to be the only one that lets you chose the US layout.