[sionnsar]

It's not the "funny letters", it's the layout. Totally unlike an English keyboard; I recall hunting hard for some essential character, such as @ or /.

[AnAmericanMother]

There isn't an @ key. You have to hit the right alt key, then Q.

And the Z and Y are swapped.

I never used @ because my teacher's portable was WAY before the internet, and actually before computers - at least anything smaller or more complicated than a PDP-8 . . .