It definitely affects the learning curve. Have a look at the Czech keyboard layout; when I first started learning that language I ended up using the Compose key

It definitely affects the learning curve. Have a look at the Czech keyboard layout; when I first started learning that language I ended up using the Compose key. Why on Earth would you put diacritics on numerical keys without any kind of logical mapping? At least Polish is 100% logical in this regard (except AltGr-X, but that was unavoidable). The Russian keyboard layout is similarly annoying as the keys are simply not where you expect them. On most systems you can install a phonetic keyboard driver and kinda roll with it - that is, until you have to use a real Russian keyboard, at which point you have to re-learn from scratch. Oh, and don't get me started on AZERTY and QWERTZ. What were they thinking?! The point is that on some layouts you can start typing right away; on other, you have to jump through hoops and get frustrated. Not that we can do anything about it now. Historical reasons.