A keyboard layout is just the way the keys on a keyboard are arranged. And yes, there are different layouts.
The keyboard layout you learned and know is called Qwerty. Take a look at the top row of your keyboard and you will see 'QWERTY' spelled out across the top. Qwerty was designed for typewriters. Typewriters had mechanical pieces that could jam if certain keys were pressed in a certain order. Qwerty was designed to solve this problem by making common key combinations far away from each other.
In other words, it was designed to slow the typist down. This is one reason why some people learn a new layout like Colemak.
