Cursive writing

trevorb
June 26, 2011, 05:14 PM posted in General Discussion

Has anyone here actually tried to learn this?  I have a go now and then but I generally just end up with meaningless squiggles!  I guess I'm doomed to rely on capital letters, or truthfully worse the IME.

I'd love to see any attempts that someone may have.

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zhenlijiang
June 27, 2011, 09:16 AM

* This sample (of non-cursive script) contains examples of things NOT to do. Please DO NOT regard it as a model. *

Hi, something wrong with regular script?

You're not alone in your interest in this Trevor. Just my personal view though--1. regular script/print/block letters whatever you call it, it's not the same exactly as writing English in print as grownups. I see nothing at all undesirable or embarrassing about it. 2. Same as learning penmanship in English, we have to master the print first before we can begin cursive. Even if we make "shortcuts" we're still passing through the same routes. I think of it more like energy-saving in pen pressure than a shortcut. For me anyway it doesn't shorten distance or even time required to form the characters. And in Chinese I still write very deliberately, eschewing "cursive", because I'm not used to writing in Chinese yet. I'll do some fuzzy writing in Japanese, but not veeery much.
You're not doomed!

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trevorb

I just think by the time I've learnt enough 汉字 I'm going to be too old to hold a brush :-)

That said I can type way more 汉字 than I can write, and I'm trying hard to change that. I actually enjoy sitting writing but I can't write enough without my computer to say write my journal by hand first. With my impending redundancy soon upon me time for study may become too abundant! I think I will get time to practice loads and then maybe use my chinese when I go for a job :-)

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zhenlijiang
June 27, 2011, 09:27 AM

You can see samples of Chinese people’s writing in Babyeggplant's post here:
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/11940#comment-217501

and Bodawei's here:
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/11942