Learn Hardcore Russian: Я стараюсь печатать вслепую на клавиатуре и редко смотрю на руки. - I try to type blindly on the keyboard and rarely look at my hands.

стараться = to make an effort, to do one’s best, to try diligently
- Я стараюсь печатать вслепую… = I’m making an effort / I really try to type blind…
- It often implies regular effort and good will, sometimes politeness:
  - Я буду стараться. – I’ll do my best.
пытаться = to attempt, often with a nuance that success is doubtful or unknown
- Я пытаюсь печатать вслепую… sounds more like I’m attempting to type blind (but I probably can’t really do it yet).
- Used a lot when you’re just trying something out or failing at it.

In this sentence, стараюсь fits better because the speaker likely already can type (at least somewhat) and is consciously making an effort to keep doing it this way.

Why is it стараюсь печатать, not стараюсь и печатаю or стараюсь печатаю?

Russian uses the pattern стараться + infinitive to mean “try to do something”:

стараться + infinitive
- Я стараюсь печатать… – I try (make an effort) to type…
- Он старается говорить медленнее. – He tries to speak more slowly.

If you said стараюсь и печатаю, it would mean I try and I type – two separate actions, which is not the intended meaning.

So стараюсь печатать is a single construction: the verb стараюсь governs the infinitive печатать.

What is the -сь at the end of стараюсь? Is this verb reflexive like “I try myself”?

Стараюсь comes from the infinitive стараться. The -сь / -ся ending is the reflexive clitic, but here it does not mean “myself” in a literal sense.

Key points:

Many Russian verbs with -ся / -сь are not reflexive in the English sense; it’s just part of the verb:
- бояться – to be afraid
- надеяться – to hope
- смеяться – to laugh
- стараться – to try, to make an effort
-ся / -сь choice is phonetic:
- After a vowel, you get -сь: стараю
  - сь → стараюсь
- After a consonant, you get -ся: ты стараешься, они стараются

So just treat стараться as a normal verb meaning “to try, to make an effort”, whose 1st‑person form is я стараюсь.

What exactly does вслепую mean here? Is it only used about actually being blind?

Вслепую is an adverb meaning “blindly, without seeing”. It can be:

Literal – physically without the help of sight:
- Он стрелял вслепую. – He was shooting blindly.
- Она нащупала дверь и пошла дальше вслепую. – She felt for the door and went on blindly.
Figurative – without understanding, without information:
- Работать вслепую. – To work blindly (without enough data).
Set phrase for typing – печатать вслепую is the usual way to say “touch type,” “type without looking at the keys.”

So in this sentence, вслепую is not about being blind as a disability; it’s the standard expression for touch typing.

Could the word order be печатать на клавиатуре вслепую instead of печатать вслепую на клавиатуре? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say both:

печатать вслепую на клавиатуре
печатать на клавиатуре вслепую

The meaning is the same: to touch type on the keyboard. Russian word order is relatively flexible, especially with adverbs and prepositional phrases.

Very slight nuances:

печатать вслепую на клавиатуре – the mind tends to group печатать вслепую (type blindly) as one idea, then specify on the keyboard.
печатать на клавиатуре вслепую – groups печатать на клавиатуре (type on the keyboard), then adds blindly.

Both are normal and idiomatic. The version in your sentence is probably a bit more common.

Why is it на клавиатуре and not some other case? What case is клавиатуре here?

Клавиатуре is in the prepositional case, singular, feminine.

The structure is:

печатать на чём? → на клавиатуре – to type on what? on the keyboard.

With на:

на + prepositional is used for location / surface:
- на столе – on the table
- на стене – on the wall
- на клавиатуре – on the keyboard
на + accusative usually indicates direction or destination:
- класть на стол – to put (something) onto the table
- положить руки на клавиатуру – to put your hands on the keyboard

So here we’re talking about where you type (on the keyboard), not movement to the keyboard, so на клавиатуре (prepositional) is correct.

Could I say за клавиатурой or по клавиатуре instead of на клавиатуре?

These expressions exist, but they mean different things:

за клавиатурой – literally “behind / at the keyboard”
- Describes a position or role, not the act of typing itself:
  - Я целый день сижу за клавиатурой. – I sit at the keyboard all day.
- Focus: you are physically at your workstation.
по клавиатуре – “on/along/across the keyboard”
- Used when something moves or hits across the keyboard:
  - Кошка прошлась по клавиатуре. – The cat walked across the keyboard.
  - Он ударил по клавиатуре. – He hit the keyboard.

For typing text, the normal collocation is:

печатать на клавиатуре – to type on the keyboard.

So in your sentence, на клавиатуре is the only natural choice.

Why is the subject я omitted before редко смотрю? Shouldn’t it be и редко я смотрю?

In Russian, you only need to say the subject pronoun when it’s:

important for contrast/emphasis, or
unclear from context.

Here we already know the subject from the beginning:

Я стараюсь печатать… и редко смотрю…

Russian verb endings show the person:

стараюсь, смотрю → both clearly 1st person singular (“I”).

So repeating я is not required. You can say и я редко смотрю на руки for extra emphasis on I (for contrast with someone else), but the neutral version simply drops it.

Why is it смотрю на руки and not just смотрю руки?

With смотреть in the sense of “to look (at)”, Russian normally uses the preposition на:

смотреть на кого? / на что?
- смотреть на экран – to look at the screen
- смотреть на него – to look at him
- смотреть на руки – to look at (one’s) hands

Without на, смотреть usually means “to watch (something as a show)”:

смотреть фильм – to watch a film
смотреть сериал – to watch a series

So:

смотреть на руки – direct your gaze to the hands
смотреть руки – sounds wrong in this context; it would be understood as “to examine hands” in some special contexts (e.g. a doctor), but even then you’d normally say осматривать руки.

For “look at,” always remember смотреть на + accusative.

Why is it на руки (plural) and not на руку? And why not на мои руки?

Plural “руки”
- People normally type with both hands, so Russian uses the plural:
  - смотреть на руки – to look at (your) hands.
- на руку (at the hand) would sound like you’re focusing on one specific hand, which doesn’t fit the usual image of typing.
No possessive “my”
- For body parts, Russian usually omits мой / моя / мои when it’s clear whose body part it is from the context/subject:
  - Я мыл руки. – literally I washed hands → I washed my hands.
  - Он поднял голову. – He raised his head (not “the head”).
- You can say на свои руки or на мои руки, but it sounds more emphatic or contrastive (e.g. compared to other people’s hands). In a neutral sentence, на руки is enough; it is naturally understood as “my hands.”

Is the position of редко fixed? Could I say Я редко смотрю на руки or Я смотрю на руки редко?

You have several natural options:

Я стараюсь печатать вслепую на клавиатуре и редко смотрю на руки.
Я стараюсь печатать вслепую на клавиатуре и я редко смотрю на руки.
Я стараюсь печатать вслепую на клавиатуре и смотрю на руки редко.

All are grammatical. Nuance:

редко смотрю на руки – neutral, very common word order (adverb before verb).
я редко смотрю на руки – same meaning; adding я adds a tiny bit of emphasis on the subject.
смотрю на руки редко – slightly more emphasis on редко; stylistically feels a bit more expressive.

So редко usually goes before the verb, but putting it after the phrase смотрю на руки is also acceptable and just shifts the emphasis.

Why is it смотрю (imperfective) and not посмотрю (perfective) after редко?

The verb aspects:

смотреть – imperfective: process, repeated/habitual action
посмотреть – perfective: one completed act of looking

With adverbs of frequency like редко, часто, обычно, всегда, Russian almost always uses the imperfective to talk about habits:

Я редко смотрю на руки. – I rarely look at my hands (as a habit).
Я часто читаю книги. – I often read books.

Посмотреть would normally refer to one specific future/finished action:

Я посмотрю на руки и всё. – I’ll (just) take a look at my hands and that’s it.
Иногда посмотрю на руки – this can work, but it’s more like “Once in a while I take a quick look at my hands,” emphasizing each separate act.

Here, because we’re talking about a general habit (I rarely do this), смотрю (imperfective) is correct.

Is печатать always “to type on a keyboard,” or can it also mean “to print”?

Печатать covers both meanings, depending on context:

To type (on a typewriter / keyboard):
- печатать на клавиатуре – to type on a keyboard
- печатать вслепую – to touch type
To print (with a printer / printing press):
- Принтер печатает медленно. – The printer prints slowly.
- Типография печатает книги. – The print shop prints books.

There is also набирать (текст) – literally “to key in / to type in / to enter text”:

набирать текст на клавиатуре – to type text on a keyboard

In everyday speech about computer use, печатать (на клавиатуре) and набирать (текст) are both common. In your sentence, печатать вслепую на клавиатуре is the standard and idiomatic way to say “I try to touch type on the keyboard.”