this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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xkcd

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https://xkcd.com/2912

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๐“˜ ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ฒ๐“ท๐“ด ๐“ฌ๐“ช๐“น๐“ฒ๐“ฝ๐“ช๐“ต ๐“› ๐“ฒ๐“ผ ๐“น๐“ป๐“ธ๐“ซ๐“ช๐“ซ๐“ต๐”‚ ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ฎ ๐“ถ๐“ธ๐“ผ๐“ฝ ๐“ฏ๐“พ๐“ท ๐“ฝ๐“ธ ๐”€๐“ป๐“ฒ๐“ฝ๐“ฎ, ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ธ๐“พ๐“ฐ๐“ฑ ๐“ต๐“ธ๐”€๐“ฎ๐“ป๐“ฌ๐“ช๐“ผ๐“ฎ ๐“บ ๐“ฒ๐“ผ ๐“ช๐“ต๐“ผ๐“ธ ๐“ช ๐“ผ๐“ฝ๐“ป๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ฐ ๐“ฌ๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ฝ๐“ฎ๐“ท๐“ญ๐“ฎ๐“ป.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 69 points 7 months ago (2 children)

My cursive looks like a 10yr old wrote it, which is about the last time I actually wrote in cursive

[โ€“] [email protected] 33 points 7 months ago (13 children)

I hate that they still teach it in schools. It means that for about 3-4 years per child, you get birthday and Christmas cards and you can't read them.

It's not noticeably faster and it's certainly not neater. Just let it die.

[โ€“] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Also writing speed doesn't really matter anymore. Most situations where writing speed used to matter now needs typing speed instead.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I don't buy this. I take notes on paper all the time, what am I going to have my laptop or phone in my face during every conversation?

[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What are you doing that having a pen and paper is normal but your phone or laptop isn't?

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (24 children)

I work in habitat restoration. I spend a lot of time outdoors, but most of my notes are just from my normal meetings. If I'm on my phone taking notes, I have to stare down at my phone and it takes me out of the meeting. I have ADHD and find my phone very distracting. But I can write quick notes on paper without having my head down.

I also just prefer physical notes. I have tried everything under the sun with digital note-taking, but nothing beats the flexibility and reliability of pen and paper. I have a great binder-based note-organization system.

I am honestly shocked that so many people NEVER use pen and paper notes? It is very normal in my field.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (4 children)

It is noticabley faster if you write with a fountain pen, or any pen with flowy ink.

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[โ€“] jballs 10 points 7 months ago

My kids got just enough cursive in school to learn how to sign their names. Definitely not 3-4 years of it. Maybe 3-4 weeks at the most.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

I'm 37 and can barely read cursive, I hate it. I learned it in primary school, never used it, and here I am.

I play DnD and one of our campaigns got so confusing so our DM made a huuuuge flow chart explaining the story, consequences of our actions, where we can go next, etc. It's all in fucking cursive and I couldn't read any of it so I continue to be confused :)

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

It's definitely not neater for lefties like me who smear our script as we write.

However, OCR input tech on phones and tablets are better at reading cursive than block print. Curiously, my grandson's curriculum in the Solano County School District dropped cursive writing and then picked it up again.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 40 points 7 months ago (14 children)

Lowercase m, n, u, v, and w are confusing as shit when placed next to or near each other.

[โ€“] [email protected] 65 points 7 months ago (9 children)
[โ€“] ilovededyoupiggy 31 points 7 months ago

So Donald Trump has been signing his name in Russian this whole time? It all makes sense now!

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I remember coming across a similar comment chain, and someone brought out cursive Hanzi, and everyone lost their minds.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I do not agree that uppercase G is easier to decipher than uppercase S

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

They're both pretty fucking bad.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You may be cool, but you'll never be "Capital L" cool...

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago

Today is you ๐“›ucky day.

[โ€“] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (4 children)

nothing in this life feels better than writing a cursive f. i put my whole arm into it. those things are the highlights of anything i write

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[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Let's be honest. You didn't like learning cursive, you didn't like having to write full-ass papers in cursive because the computer lab was always full as a teenager, and you don't like writing cursive now because it means you probably have to borrow a pen from somebody at work who never washes their hands. Sincerely, a 45 year old.

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (12 children)

You guys were forced to actually use it? Outside of when I was taught it, no one demanded it. In fact, most teachers I had discouraged it, or hand written at all. They wanted everything typed in 12 point Times New Roman. Double spaced. Indented. With footers and headers.

I'm 39.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I recently found an old letter from my grandpa to my grandma during the war in Old German handwriting. A lot of spikes. Decided to learn to read it. Nice journey, I recommend. (Not necessarily old GERMAN handwriting, but, you now, old handwriting in your mother tongue).

[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

"Three rings for the Elven Kings under the sky..."

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

For Kurrent the umlauts next to the capital letters looks identical to the small e lol

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

that's because they are, umlauts came from writing vowel digraphs as the first letter with the second letter above it, for example ueber/veber -> uอคber/vอคber -> รผber/vฬˆber -> รผber (although รผber in particular didn't actually originally have the spelling ueber). "e" turned into two lines, which now is represented as two dots/a diaeresis on most computer fonts. that's why, if you don't have access to diacritics (e.g. on technology), you write รค/รถ/รผ like ae/oe/ue (and why you have names which are spelled like Goethe instead of Gรถthe)

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[โ€“] captain_aggravated 16 points 7 months ago (11 children)

I ended up kind of creating my own cursive "font" because I thought several of the choices for letter shapes were, in graphological parlance, "Just completely fucking retarded." Like the lowercase S being a slightly pointy loop. I devised my own capital T as well, and jettisoned that Q that looks like a 2.

I wrote in completely illegible cursive until about halfway through college when I started using a laptop for all assignments. On a decent keyboard I can peak at 104 wpm. On the very rare occasion I do have to pick up a pen and write with it anymore, I'm usually jotting down measurements or something, or slopping out some squiggles that will just have to suffice as my signature.

I don't see teaching cursive to children as a particularly valuable usage of time, at this point it might be worth teaching them to read it, but proficiency in writing it is not valuable.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (20 children)

Omitted is the capital Q that looks like a 2.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (5 children)

It's gets so much worse when you use russian cursive.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

In the right bottom corner that's clearly greek Xi

[โ€“] Deceptichum 13 points 7 months ago (4 children)
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[โ€“] booly 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I wonder how much the placement of the uppercase L stems from Randall Munroe's own memories of Far Side comics with the "Larson" signature.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (19 children)

Serious question for people younger than me: How did you come up with a signature if you didn't learn cursive?

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

just write your name really fast without lifting the pen

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I just do a lil scribble and call it a day. Signatures are kind of stupid anyway.

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[โ€“] Imgonnatrythis 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lowercase b should be lower on y axis

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (10 children)

Looking at this, while there is some overlap, it's very apparent that US cursive is not the same as Swedish cursive. E.g. lower case x starting from the top? O_O

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