myrmepropagandistCan you write in cursive?
| Yes, and often do! | |
| Technically, yes. But I don't. | |
| Only my name, so not really. | |
| Not at all |
Poll ends at .
Regardless if it's cursive or not, do you like your handwriting?
| Yes! Love to write by hand in my own way. | |
| I have not ever thought about this? | |
| Always feel a little awkward about it. | |
| Other |
Poll ends at .
Nazo@futurebird Again the left-handedness comes into play... It's harder to write in general, so my handwriting definitely suffers and feels awkward.
I really should just write backwards. š
Virginicus@nazokiyoubinbou @futurebird Same here, but Iām old enough that we werenāt allowed to write left-handed. They forced me to write with my weak hand and gave me bad grades in penmanship for years afterward.
@Virginicus @futurebird Oh I did have one teacher try very very hard to force me to write right-handed. She absolutely hated me with a passion. I guess somehow I didn't get at the time what a terrible person she was. When she first did it everyone else was watching a movie and I was forced to do handwriting lessons. But she didn't stand there over me, so I pretty much just watched the movie across the divider while pretending to do the lessons.
It's very weird to me that people actually treated being left-handed as actually evil.
KanaMauna@futurebird @Virginicus @nazokiyoubinbou
Apparently, I was left-handed until we started doing cursive writing in the third grade at which point I became right handed. I have no recollection of this switch and I assume I was following the teacherās lead too literally.
@KanaMauna @futurebird @Virginicus Most probably. A lot of teachers really did do their best to force left-handed people to become right handed. It has actually been a thing for a long long time.
At least there's no trauma in it for you.
@nazokiyoubinbou @KanaMauna @Virginicus
And did we learn anything from what a huge failure that "education idea" was?
@nazokiyoubinbou @Virginicus @futurebird
And in the end I probably typed both-handed 100x more than I wrote. So the whole right-handed obsession was forā¦?
AstroMancer5G (she/her)@Virginicus
I wasn't allowed to write in cursive for most of elementary school (for a petty reason, too, we had to "finish the cursive practice book" first, like it was dangerous). I did it anyway, I just got in trouble a lot for it.
@nazokiyoubinbou @futurebird
I wasn't allowed to write in cursive for most of elementary school (for a petty reason, too, we had to "finish the cursive practice book" first, like it was dangerous). I did it anyway, I just got in trouble a lot for it.
@nazokiyoubinbou @futurebird
@AstroMancer5G @Virginicus @futurebird That's just... ... WHY???
Because if you learned too much of how to write in cursive it would... enable faking being a doctor?
Chris Cantrell@futurebird took about thirty years. looks like someone who learned cursive and then decided it was optional ā which is accurate. the notes are legible. stopped apologizing for the rest.
CM Harrington@futurebird I write by hand a lot (and yes, cursive). My penmanship isnāt great so I donāt love it, but I do like writing by hand. I always have a pen within reach (ok, several).
malte@futurebird I learned to appreciate developing my own handwriting from my grand father who was an illustrator and typographist. He always had the most beautiful way of lettering signs in his home and the church he was volunteering in. Some of those signs are still there decades after. I liked to read his letters and started playing around with handwriting early on in my childhood because of it. I would write nonsense and just marvel at the letters. It is my favorite way of doodling.
Michael BuschFor me; this depends on the language.
English and French and Spanish I can do fine.
German and Russian cursive I never learned well enough to read or write. And Japanese and Chinese I have never attempted.
The Tiller š@michael_w_busch @futurebird
... but we write German in the same cursive (set of letters) as other western European languages, no?
... but we write German in the same cursive (set of letters) as other western European languages, no?
I understood that there are three different varieties of German cursive in use?
Which was not so confusing as Russian cursive where half a dozen letters all look very similar to one another.
Juni 
:3@michael_w_busch Yes. Theres the normal cursive. Then there used to be a more unique german cursive(SĆ¼tterlinschrift). But if I remember correctly the Nazis banned it and people didnt bother to go back to it after 1945.
There is also Stenografie, which is an abriviated handwriting thing that some old people still know how to do. It was used until the computer age.
There is also Stenografie, which is an abriviated handwriting thing that some old people still know how to do. It was used until the computer age.
@michael_w_busch @futurebird
Maybe Iām not clear what the word ācursiveā means here. Is it more than just āhandwritingā?
Sure, the specific style of the letters that are taught in primary school will change over the decades. Is that what you mean with āthree different setsā?
(SĆ¼tterlin and Kurzschrift [stenography] are entirely historical, as said above)
ŃŠµŃŠ°ŃŠøŠ¼Šø Š¼Š½Š¾Š³Š¾ź®ŃŠøŃŃŠø@futurebird I prefer my cursive in Cyrillic over English, because I have bad memories of being forced to overcome terrible writing in English, and Russian was like "new script who this" so it was all good.
morgan@futurebird I like it as in I made it look fun for me, but it's not generally speaking very good
Polly Kraisus@futurebird I don't like my writing, I find it messy and not pretty š
I regularly have a bout of motivation to "take the time to write more slowly in a more tidy way" hoping that it will improve but it never leads to any change. Maybe it's just my usual unnecessarily abundant self-criticism at play and I should just be proud of how unique it is. (My partner makes fun / finds it endearing that I write "i"s and "j"s starting with the dot.)
I regularly have a bout of motivation to "take the time to write more slowly in a more tidy way" hoping that it will improve but it never leads to any change. Maybe it's just my usual unnecessarily abundant self-criticism at play and I should just be proud of how unique it is. (My partner makes fun / finds it endearing that I write "i"s and "j"s starting with the dot.)
sonja@futurebird left handed here. my 2nd grade teacher told me that they were going to hold me back a year unless my handwriting improved. ever since then, i hate thinking about having to physically write things out.
This is very bad IMO. It's a nonsense reason to hold a kid back. I think many schools have replaced cursive units with touch typing which is also very useful. Though neither of these things is always taught in the most thoughtful way.
@futurebird it was the mid 80's š¤· i was the only left handed kid in my whole
class...im not sure how that happened.
my sister, who is a couple of years older than me and far more left handed than i am, has impeccable penmanship because she was threatened with the same thing at the same age (although i didnt find out about that until decades later) š¤·
@futurebird whats ironical about all of this is that my ex was in essentially the same school system as i was close to the same time, and no one ever harped on them about their handwriting. and its fucking chicken scratch.
all i can think of is that girls need good penmanship, boys do not. š¤®
Farticle AcceleratoršØš¦@emily_rugburn @futurebird I received an award at grade six āgraduationā ceremonies for most improved handwriting. (Circa 1979)
It was because I was no longer required to use cursive and switched to printing.
Within the past decade I made a conscious effort to relearn cursive.
I donāt write often but I do like my current cursive better than my printing.
It was because I was no longer required to use cursive and switched to printing.
Within the past decade I made a conscious effort to relearn cursive.
I donāt write often but I do like my current cursive better than my printing.
kit@emily_rugburn
I was in my first year, with a Presbyterian teacher who held tightly on to the belief left handedness was of the devil. The 70s.
@futurebird
I was in my first year, with a Presbyterian teacher who held tightly on to the belief left handedness was of the devil. The 70s.
@futurebird
@hypostase @futurebird my mom is now ambidextrous because the public school system in the 50's forced all kids to learn to write with their right hands. my mom told me she would get hit with a ruler by the teacher if she used her left hand. š¤·
My dad is left handed and has horrible block print writing. Well... OK it's not that bad, you can always read it but there are no cases.
I know too many left handed people who really struggled with writing. My dad also went through the trying to force him to use his right hand nonsense.
@emily_rugburn
Same, more or less. I can't write with the left, but each hand plays its part and I do do a lot of things backwards.
@futurebird
Same, more or less. I can't write with the left, but each hand plays its part and I do do a lot of things backwards.
@futurebird
@hypostase i had this problem with writing backwards early on. i think i was just mirroring right handed people...
i explained to someone that my left hand can do very intricate things and my right hand can only make gross movements...that being said, i cannot do things with my left hand that i do with my right (and obvs vise versa).
@emily_rugburn
My fine motor coordination isn't great in either, but the left is probably naturally better. What you say makes perfect sense.
My fine motor coordination isn't great in either, but the left is probably naturally better. What you say makes perfect sense.
@hypostase well...the other thing is the degree in which someone is left handed...
@hypostase @futurebird hopefully it doesnt happen anymore
@emily_rugburn
I think it's probably stopped, at least in the West, but I know some who'd be happy to bring it back.
@futurebird
I think it's probably stopped, at least in the West, but I know some who'd be happy to bring it back.
@futurebird
kris@futurebird my style of hand writing is mostly print letters but with some cursive ones thrown in occasionally, usually s. i like my handwriting ok when iām not hurrying it, but it gets messy when iām in a rush
liferstate@futurebird I don't know if I "like" my handwriting but I do have nonstandard ways of writing particular cursive letters, and over the years I've consciously changed the way I print certain letters. So it's very much "mine."
E.g. in 2nd or 3rd grade I thought the way lowercase a looked in the newspaper was way cooler than the letter as I'd been taught, so I switched.
Eric LawtonI think I think better with handwriting vs plain typing but in the longer run, search and hyperlinks tip the scale to typing with Markdown.
Plus I type faster than easily legible handwriting.
jdm2 šµš·@futurebird I was shamed for having ābadā cursive penmanship. I dropped it as soon as it wasnāt a requirement anymore.
I donāt even think it was that bad.
Darth Hideout š³ļøāšIn days of yore, when I was in college & travelers' checks roamed the earth, I met an American traveler my age in a Dublin hostel who was unable ever to sign his name the same way twice. Had issues. lol
Rehana Rodrigues@futurebird Other: it's fine, better than awkward but less than love.
Larry@futurebird
None but pharmacists and doctors can read it, though.
Cursive with a fountain pen is a sensual pleasure, regardless.
None but pharmacists and doctors can read it, though.
Cursive with a fountain pen is a sensual pleasure, regardless.
Eliza MBI had dreadful handwriting as a child. At secondary school they made me work to improve it. I don't think it was ever beautiful but it was regular and legible.
Then computers.
Now I find writing by hand a bit of a chore, I don't get enough practice. It's not degenerated to my eleven year old standard, yet. It could though if I don't take care to keep doing it.
Adriano@futurebird I can write cursive, but it comes out awful, because I haven't written like that in about 30 years. I do like my handwriting otherwise, even though its quality varies a lot depending on how tired I am.
Kineneāš»@futurebird We had to learn cursive in school, but I found it easier to use printing if I wanted to remember what I was studying.
Some of my letters are connected, just for the speed of writing. People tell me my writing is quite legible, and I can take notes faster than I can type (on any keyboard).
I was that kid who almost flunked 9th grade typing class (on large mechanical typewriters), because I never got over 20 wpm without errors.
peachfrontfor me writing cursive is much faster than writing block letters, but as i get older my hand writing gets messier & messier so i don't know that i "like" it, i can see from my journals that i prefer cursive when i have to make written notes in a hurry just because it's so much faster but it's about as ugly as block letters now
typing is fastest of all, 125+ WPM but that's on a full-sized keyboard not a picky little screen so in the field it's cursive or voice recorder notes
Floaty Birb@futurebird voting "yes" in the sense of "seems fine." rather than in the sense of "omg i really love it!"
C. R. Collins š³ šøIt used to be fine, but erosive arthritis has made it nearly illegible, plus I can no longer write in small spaces (my husband has to sign any checks we need to send.)
LĆŗmĆ«colca@futurebird
My handwriting changed a lot when I was writing on a whiteboard on a daily basis and now looks kinda funny to me when I write on paper lol
My handwriting changed a lot when I was writing on a whiteboard on a daily basis and now looks kinda funny to me when I write on paper lol
Deb Chachra@futurebird All my notes in engineering and grad school were exclusively in clear, legible printing (Iād stopped using cursive), which ended up serving me well ā while Iām a little envious of all my architect/designer friends and colleagues with ācoolā lettering compared to my very plain upper- and lowercase, mine is so much more readable on a whiteboard.
dstu@futurebird it depends on context. If you're writing Russian as a grown-up, you write in cursive. This influenced my handwriting in English, but I'm happy with my personal longhand, which is not usually full-blown cursive but sometimes comes close.
@adhdphd recently got me into using a fountain pen, and that lends itself to more cursive-like handwriting.
Also, I've been meaning to pick up some form of shorthand one of these days. I always thought it would be useful for long work meetings.
0xC0DEC0DE07EA@futurebird I have, since enlisting in the Navy, written almost exclusively in block capitals. The act is choppier and less fluid than cursive or even regular print, but itās always clearly legible (to me). Given the frequency with which I have difficulty with the handwriting of others, I consider the trade-offs worth it.
JoĆ£o Tiago Rebelo (NAFO J-121)@futurebird I'm a lefty. My cursive has had better days: writing faster means less finesse, the "m", "n", "s" and "r" suffer from legibility, I have to slow down when writing for others (for example, public exams or queries to companies/state entities) so they can understand what I wrote.
But I write at least two A4 pages of cursive every day.
But I write at least two A4 pages of cursive every day.
Mad Engineering@futurebird My normal handwriting is a weird demented scrawl that my 11th grade English teacher joked that it should be rented to the CIA as a form of encryption. It is none the less satisfying to write.
I also have a slower and more legible print for when other people being able to read it is important.
Paul Chernoff@futurebird Somewhat painful since my father had beautiful handwriting. Which was probably the result of being an engineer and spending many hours at a drafting table. A commanding officer didn't want my father to leave the unit because he was so good at making signs.
amd@futurebird Iām old enough that I took hand drafting courses and my hand writing is in all capitals and has weird artifacts like crossed 7s and slashed zeros.
I like it perfectly fineā¦Except that I frequently find myself teaching young children and then it looks foreign and incorrect.
So I try to write ācorrectlyā and it looks like a second grader wrote it.
J. R. DePriest 
:EA DATA. SF:My handwriting is borderline illegible but at least Microsoft can't use my spiral notebooks to train its Copilot models.