A few weeks to reach a solid level, most likely, provided you actually practice.<p>If you type a lot of boilerplate code (which really is the only area where typing speed will hurt you) you&#x27;ll notice a difference, but I&#x27;d argue that fact in itself is something you ought to fix.<p>I taught myself workable svorak (A5) in a weekend on IRC, then polished it over a shorter period after to feel comfortable. The good thing about SvorakA5[0] is that it uses AltGr + regular keys for special characters, which is really nice.<p>I don&#x27;t recommend learning dvorak or any variant of it for the typing speed unless you do dictation or whatever, because you&#x27;re not getting that much from it in any profession that requires you to think anyway. Personally, I just feel like I&#x27;m destroying my hands less when typing, which is a good enough reason. They&#x27;re already some level of broken from having played strategy games too much, so I feel like I should take care of them more.<p>(Obviously Svorak is the Swedish version of Dvorak, so for other languages you&#x27;d have to find something like A5)<p>Edit: I recommend playing &quot;Typing of the Dead&quot;[1] if you can find a way to do so. Great way for polishing your use of a layout.<p>0 - <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;aoeu.info&#x2F;s&#x2F;dvorak&#x2F;images&#x2F;svorak-A5.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;aoeu.info&#x2F;s&#x2F;dvorak&#x2F;images&#x2F;svorak-A5.png</a><p>1 - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Typing_of_the_Dead" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Typing_of_the_Dead</a>