Stenography is a way of writing very fast, using short signs instead of full letters and words. One little mark can stand for a whole sound, a whole word, or even a common phrase like "thank you". People learned it so they could write down every word a person said while the person was still talking — normal handwriting is far too slow for that. It was the everyday skill of secretaries, court workers, and news writers for a long time, especially before recording machines were common. In everyday talk, most people say **shorthand**, not stenography; "stenography" is the more formal, more technical word, the one you see on a school course or an old job advertisement. The word covers both the system of signs itself and the act of writing with it. A person who does this work is a **stenographer**, and in American courts you still meet one today: the person sitting near the judge, typing on a small machine, making the official record of everything said. That machine work is also called stenography, even though it is typing and not pen marks. Note that "stenography" is not a normal way to say "typing" or "taking notes" — it means this special fast system, not writing notes in your own words.

速記（速記法）。台灣一般就講「速記」；法院裡打字做逐字紀錄的人叫「速記員」。注意不要跟「筆記」搞混——筆記是自己整理重點，速記是一字不漏地記下來。