Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

General discussion about learning languages

Do you write using cursive?

No, I do not.
20
27%
No, I do not (but I secretly wish that I could).
5
7%
No, I do not (but I wish that my children could).
1
1%
Yes, I do.
29
39%
Yes, I do and would like my children to learn the script too.
19
26%
 
Total votes: 74

Cavesa
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby Cavesa » Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:28 am

I don't think it's gonna be extinct anytime soon.

Yes, I write it. I've always written horribly though, and my parents mistook it for a talent for medicine :-D (Yes, the jokes about doctors writing horribly are correct. There is a pace at which you can no longer write leggibly. Either you become a cryptologist of your own lecture notes, or you're gonna struggle).

My usual writing is mostly cursive with a few adaptations (a few print letters instead of the cursive I dislike for example). It should also be noted, that there is not just one cursive for the Latin script. For example the French cursive looks much nicer than the Czech one, in my opinion. I know of a guy, who had been educated partially in France as a child, then came back, and struggled with his teachers correcting his nicer script all the time. Including the way he was writing his own name.

There are some advantages of the cursive. From what I've heard, it has been proven to have a good impact on memory and brain development (heard it from some teachers, no sure how much truth is in that and never cared to check). When done well, it can be faster than the print script.

The disadvantages are obvious: few people are able to write really nicely (in my family, we are unable to read after each other). In today's world, where all of us write at least partially on a computer instead, it is hard to keep practicing. And the practice opportunities are often of the wrong kind. A fast paced lecture doesn't entice nice writing, like the correspondance or book keeping in the old days used to. And the children being pushed into the cursive too different from the print is not something I'd find useful too. Why not use the less different cursive variants?

Also, the personal style is quite necessary. I'd personally say the current official Czech cursive is in some ways ugly and not obvious (there are letters that everybody seems to be changing for the print ones asap. For example the cursive "S" is just ugly and I have yet to see an adult non-teacher person using it). It's just like the grammar. Sometimes, the rules should adapt to the common usage.

But I don't think dropping the cursive completely would be a good solution. We may get to that point, but why hurry.
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby Cavesa » Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:31 am

A question for all those using the cursive: Do you learn the different national variants of it, when learning other languages? Sure, learning the Cyrillics cursive is different. But I mean, whether you learn the different German/French/British/Czech/etc. variants?
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby aaleks » Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:49 am

Cavesa wrote:A question for all those using the cursive: Do you learn the different national variants of it, when learning other languages? Sure, learning the Cyrillics cursive is different. But I mean, whether you learn the different German/French/British/Czech/etc. variants?

In school when I was learning German I was taught the German variant, of course. I remember trying to learn an English variant but it was long time ago -- either during my first "real" attempt to learn English or even before that. Now if I'm writing in English by hand it's some mixed version of two, I think.
Last edited by aaleks on Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby Speakeasy » Mon Mar 04, 2019 11:58 am

Cavesa wrote:A question for all those using the cursive: Do you learn the different national variants of it, when learning other languages? Sure, learning the Cyrillics cursive is different. But I mean, whether you learn the different German/French/British/Czech/etc. variants?
I notice that a number of respondents have made laudable efforts in this sense. There are only minor differences between the cursive form of the English/Latin alphabet and that of a few of the languages that I have studied. However, apart from the correct placement of accents/diacriticals, I have never bothered adapting my handwriting to other standard National/Latin variants. As for my studies of Russian, while I made an initial, nominal effort at learning Cyrillic cursive writing, I rely on Cyrillic printing for taking handwritten notes. Given the changes in technology over the past two decades, I would assume that the term “pen pal” now means “texting pal, keyboard pal” and the like. ;)

EDITED:
Typos, not writeos
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby zenmonkey » Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:27 pm

Cavesa wrote:A question for all those using the cursive: Do you learn the different national variants of it, when learning other languages? Sure, learning the Cyrillics cursive is different. But I mean, whether you learn the different German/French/British/Czech/etc. variants?


Not really, my cursive is mostly for me and note taking - I learned ß at that was that. I've been more attentive when writing/reading number because those can lend to some confusion (7,4,8,9). I wish I wrote as nicely as the French but that's never going to happen.
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby David1917 » Mon Mar 04, 2019 5:41 pm

Cavesa wrote:A question for all those using the cursive: Do you learn the different national variants of it, when learning other languages? Sure, learning the Cyrillics cursive is different. But I mean, whether you learn the different German/French/British/Czech/etc. variants?


This is something I would like to do, however I haven't taken the opportunity to do so. When I sit down to study a language I always feel like I'm racing against the clock, and would rather get some new information than work on my handwriting. Maybe one day...
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby FyrsteSumarenINoreg » Mon Mar 04, 2019 7:53 pm

Writing cursive is faster, which is especially important when taking notes.
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:46 pm

I learned cursive in elementary school, and dropped it as soon as I could in middle school. I think I have a really nice legible print style and for me print is faster than cursive. I have no problem hand writing exams, etc.

These days the only thing in cursive is my signature. BUT: As part of registration for my bar exam, we were required to copy an entire paragraph of text. In cursive. It was brutal. I had to stop and try to remember how to do certain letters... But we could print on the actual exam! I think the cursive thing was just an additional form of identification. So painful!
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby tarvos » Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:01 pm

I write cursive when taking notes. But I have quite neat handwriting.
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Re: Cursive: Going The Way Of The Dodo?

Postby Cainntear » Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:03 pm

Stefan wrote:It is said that Skolöverstyrelsen ruined the tradition in the 1970s by creating a new simplified writing system (SÖ-stilen) and forcing teachers to implement it. I was taught both which probably caused more confusion than it helped.

That's similar to what happened in Scotland, presumably as part of the same trend and led by the same group of experts.

Scotland was early in ditching "cursive" and replaced it with "joined up writing", which was probably quicker to write than traditional cursive hand while also not being as difficult to read. It seems to me that countries that dropped cursive later didn't replace it with anything other than "print" hand, which is clear but (very) slow.

I personally don't see the point of cursive, except if you want a fancy wedding invitation.

After all, cursive evolved due to the technology of the time.

The classic cursive in English is called "copperplate" -- so called because it is based on trying to write like a printed book in the days when books were printed from copper plates which had had the letters hand-chiselled out of them.

The fountain pen was invented specifically to make it possible to write with ink on paper in the same way as you would write with a chisel on copper, because books were seen as sophisticated.

I'm guessing that's basically the way it worked everywhere.
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