japanese handwriting

[Ulver_684]

I had the same situation, I bought a manga and it answered lots of my questions!

Andresit0-san!

What manga was it? can you give the name? thanks!

[foxyshez]

well this is interesting, i thought the same when i was starting to learn to write - and read for that matter. Looking at a lot of asian peoples handwriting in English-it's sooo small and neat and looks almost like print. (not a bad thing) i was thinking more about reading someones handwriting. Some fonts are difficult to read in Japanese and i always thought what if i can never read Japanese handwriting!

I have just asked my boyfriend to write something in Japanese-he is Japanese (we live in Japan) i asked because his handwriting-i think- is hmm whats the word....unreadable to even Japanese. I asked him to write naturally-but as though he was writing a note for a Japanese friend (a note to himself would have obviously been too difficult and unrealistic. Other Japanese writing i've seen is never this difficult-although i've only ever seen women's. Men's writing is often less fancy and more scruffy-masculine ne! haha

argh i cant post the image! wont let me-i'm too new-try thins link

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.c ... D=15554843

[Psy]

Unfortunately, not being a myspace member, I can't myself view the image, but it is pretty understood in the "kanji culture" that men tend to write characters more rigidly and women tend to flow the strokes together. As for reading, I found handwriting extremely difficult until I learned to write the characters myself-- only then does one get an intimate understanding of stroke order and start to process how things are simplified/slurred in rapid writing.

As an example, see the image:



Even if you already know the character 福, those who are well acquainted with stroke order will find it much easier to understand how everything is slurred together.

So yeah, learn the stroke order-- it helps lots.

[foxyshez]

[quote="foxyshez"]:shock: well this is interesting, i thought the same when i was starting to learn to write - and read for that matter. Looking at a lot of asian peoples handwriting in English-it's sooo small and neat and looks almost like print. (not a bad thing) i was thinking more about reading someones handwriting. Some fonts are difficult to read in Japanese and i always thought what if i can never read Japanese handwriting!

I have just asked my boyfriend to write something in Japanese-he is Japanese (we live in Japan) i asked because his handwriting-i think- is hmm whats the word....unreadable to even Japanese. I asked him to write naturally-but as though he was writing a note for a Japanese friend (a note to himself would have obviously been too difficult and unrealistic. Other Japanese writing i've seen is never this difficult-although i've only ever seen women's. Men's writing is often less fancy and more scruffy-masculine ne! haha

Lets see if i can post this pic

[Psy]

It says 買い物メモ and below that ありがとう.

I feel cocky now.

[foxyshez]

haha well done! But it certainly looks different to how a beginner would write it, right!

[johnpa]

So... Poor handwriting is not a problem in Japan?
English is my second language and I never bothered learning penmanship. And this has never been a problem.
But I recently watched a J-Drama where people with poor handwriting were looked down on.
This bothers me because I can't even form a proper へ.

[Psy]

Well, obviously it is a good trait to have good penmanship in whatever language you write, but as a general rule, since the Japanese don't expect non-asians to be able to even read anything, you will be highly praised for any ability that you do demonstrate.

[thomasz]

I agree that Japanese handwriting is hard to write. I learnt them so many time but I'm still bad.