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Do you know how to handwrite (cursive) in English? Use it often?
- Thread starter frontovik
- Start date
Conciliator
Banned
probably 80% of the handwriting I have done in the last 5 years or so has been filling out an occasional check
hey that's pretty good
My normal handwriting isn't cursive, but it turned into chickenscratch in college-- the real quickest way to write!™.
I made it into a font a while ago:
hey that's pretty good
Yea, like many others I learned cursive in elementary school. Never use it anymore though. Used it a bit after I'd learned it but my handwriting was (and is) so terrible that my teachers were like "print, please, we can't read this anymore." one day. So from then on I just used print.
Memento_Mori15
Member
I write in cursive since its faster for me to jot notes down.
Earthbound64
Banned
Silent Chief
Member
I use it daily to write notes down.
It's faster than printing and taking notes in a meeting on a phone would be slower, take more time to find the notes back and look like I'm playing with my phone.
Now, if I need to write something down that needs to be pasted integrally, I'll type that in a file.
It's faster than printing and taking notes in a meeting on a phone would be slower, take more time to find the notes back and look like I'm playing with my phone.
Now, if I need to write something down that needs to be pasted integrally, I'll type that in a file.
motherxwolf
Member
in south america cursive is king. when i moved here it was all print and had to learn to write in print lol. i still write in cursive but only things for me, like notes and stuff. when people look at what i'm writing they usually can't read it
I was taught it in elementary school, forgot, then I basically spent a year on once a week after-school classes learning it AGAIN when I was in the fourth grade as part of a handwriting program I was in because of dysgraphia, and then I forgot probably a couple years after that and to this day still don't remember the majority of it, though I'm pretty sure it's stuck in my brain somewhere.
I actually find reading cursive to be harder than writing it despite my dysgraphia, though. I don't know why, I feel like cursive penmanship varies even more than print penmanship does and so often I can't distinguish what letter is what.
I actually find reading cursive to be harder than writing it despite my dysgraphia, though. I don't know why, I feel like cursive penmanship varies even more than print penmanship does and so often I can't distinguish what letter is what.
ElectricBanquet
Member
I write my signature in cursive and for some reason whenever I write the dollar amount out on a check I always do it in cursive (although I don't write many checks these days).
For everything else I don't use it. I used it through high school but once I got to college I pretty much stopped using it regularly.
I think one of the things that turned me off to it was that I think my parents' generation were taught to write in cursive differently than my generation was. So often when I'd use it older people would misinterpret or have a hard time reading what I wrote (even some teachers). I have good handwriting in general so when I use regular print lettering it's easily legible.
For everything else I don't use it. I used it through high school but once I got to college I pretty much stopped using it regularly.
I think one of the things that turned me off to it was that I think my parents' generation were taught to write in cursive differently than my generation was. So often when I'd use it older people would misinterpret or have a hard time reading what I wrote (even some teachers). I have good handwriting in general so when I use regular print lettering it's easily legible.
Fountain pens! God, I forgot about them. My primary school (ages 4-12) insisted we use them, though I can't remember at what age we started using them. I remember, unlike everyone else, I was able to use the same fountain pen throughout my time at the school. Biros were forbidden, and if you got caught using them you'd get in trouble. Keep in mind this was 80's Ireland and the school was run by the church. The remaining nuns were ageing and half the teaching staff were not a part of the church.
The nuns lived in a convent next to the church just down the road, and they had orphans being taken care of. One of them was in our class, and she was always short of cartridges for her fountain pen, so she was always borrowing them. I remember the principal (a nun, naturally) found out, bought a large box of cartridges and frogmarched her down to the class where it was announced that she would give everyone back what was owed. I'll never forget the look on the poor girl's face as she went around person to person.
Everyone was always wanting for cartridges, since we were usually writing all day long. It's been many years since I've used one. I remember them being quite messy, at least in our young hands. Secondary school (ages 13-18) used biro pens which was a godsend - you could write much faster with them. Of course that just meant people kept running out of ink and needed new pens constantly.
The nuns lived in a convent next to the church just down the road, and they had orphans being taken care of. One of them was in our class, and she was always short of cartridges for her fountain pen, so she was always borrowing them. I remember the principal (a nun, naturally) found out, bought a large box of cartridges and frogmarched her down to the class where it was announced that she would give everyone back what was owed. I'll never forget the look on the poor girl's face as she went around person to person.
Everyone was always wanting for cartridges, since we were usually writing all day long. It's been many years since I've used one. I remember them being quite messy, at least in our young hands. Secondary school (ages 13-18) used biro pens which was a godsend - you could write much faster with them. Of course that just meant people kept running out of ink and needed new pens constantly.
fluffydelusions
Member
Yes I know it. I'm 38 and I remember learning it in like 1st or 2nd grade...I don't remember which exactly. Do I use it though nowadays? Apart from my signature, nope.
OmegaTreeFish
Banned
Pretty standard to be taught it when i was young here in UK. However i basically never have to write anything so my handwriting just looks like the scrawlings of a madman.
CaviarMeths
Member
I learned it in elementary, but never use it. As a lefty, my writing gets smeared enough without a style that doesn't let me take the pen off the page. Even my signature is technically cursive, but it's basically just scribbles with the only legible letters being my initials.
Burning Justice
the superior princess
Learned it in elementary school, have not used it even once since then.
MAn, this thread has really be a revelation... I think less than 10% of people I know (well, those I saw writing at least) use print letters, almost everybody uses cursive. Probably because this is the only thing we were taught.
Would be interesting to know the country for each group.
Would be interesting to know the country for each group.
Phobophile
A scientist and gentleman in the manner of Batman.
I write nearly exclusively in cursive. Even when I write in block letters, they end up being half cursive, anyway.
CosmicGroinPull
Member
Same. Even my print looks semi cursive. When I see print handwriting it looks like children's handwriting to me, sorry.
beyond_death
Member
We were taught to write like that in grade 6 or something. Nowadays I pretty much use a mix of cursive and block.
Prophet Steve
Member
I've used it until like two years ago or so to have my handwriting be a bit more legible and not having to think as much when required to write in block letters.
TheSkullPrince
Member
Learned it back in elementary and use it for when I write personal notes. It's a lot faster than writing in print.
Although if someone else has to read whatever it is I'm writing then I write in print.
Although if someone else has to read whatever it is I'm writing then I write in print.
Was? We really have gone downhill if the supreme writing style has stopped to be taught.
Skyline Owl
Neo Member
I'm 27 and I learned cursive in 3rd grade, but I don't use it much outside of singing things.
My mom, who was born in 1960, settled on some weird form of half & half + a little chicken scratch thrown in for good measure.
My mom, who was born in 1960, settled on some weird form of half & half + a little chicken scratch thrown in for good measure.
Spiritwalker
Member
Nah fuck that shit. I hate reading cursive handwriting tbh. :x
Yeah, same. It gets taught in school and people usually use it as it's the fastest method.
VenomousCoffee
Member
I learned cursive in school of course, but now I can only do it with tremendous difficulty.
When i was in college I took Russian, and we had to use Russian cursive on our homework (the Russian alphabet is a mix of letters that are the same as English and that look the same but make different sounds, eg, p's are r's, r's are g's). So even now my brain switches them up if I try to write in cursive in English.
When i was in college I took Russian, and we had to use Russian cursive on our homework (the Russian alphabet is a mix of letters that are the same as English and that look the same but make different sounds, eg, p's are r's, r's are g's). So even now my brain switches them up if I try to write in cursive in English.
Supervlieg
Member
I always presumed this was a basic human skill learned at school.
DiipuSurotu
Banned
I've heard they don't even teach handwriting in Finland anymore, let alone cursive writing.
H.Protagonist
[-_-]/
Of course. I didn't think that was so unusual, though, until I saw the handwriting of school kids/basically anyone under the age of 30 (even their print script is...bad). It's weird to me that such a basic thing is slipping away, but with the prevalence computers/phones/tablets it's not surprising exactly. I think it's important to know, but I'm an oldie.
Captain Tuttle
Member
Indeed. I only write in cursive
I know how to, but I don't ever. I was taught cursive in 3rd grade and for some reason they forced us to write it entirely with pens. The idea was that after you learned the letterforms you would have to write everything in class for that entire year in cursive in ink. But my handwriting was horrific already and everything I wrote that year turned into a long blob of sinuous lines, to the point that my teacher let me alone write in print for the rest of the year because he couldn't read any of my assignments. Besides my signature, which is basically nonsense out of which you can barely make out my initials, I haven't used it in 15 years and don't expect to ever use it again, since I'd probably have to relearn it entirely before I could write full sentences with it.
I also write my 7s and Zs with lines through the middle because Brain Age wasn't able to read them and it recommended doing that to differentiate them from 1s and Ss.
A lot of that might be on my school district though, as my sister developed this weird callus on the side of one of her fingers because she spent all her life until some point in high school holding pencils incorrectly.
I also write my 7s and Zs with lines through the middle because Brain Age wasn't able to read them and it recommended doing that to differentiate them from 1s and Ss.
A lot of that might be on my school district though, as my sister developed this weird callus on the side of one of her fingers because she spent all her life until some point in high school holding pencils incorrectly.
BillMurray
Neo Member
This. Quite surprised at the amount of people in the thread who cannot.
PandaPedinte
Member
Yes. I'm surprised by the answers in this thread, I guess it's not a common thing in another countries as it's in Brazil.
jobrro
Member
I was taught it in school and could probably do it somewhat correctly if necessary. These days most of what I write I spend much more time reading over and I find print more legible so I do not use it, I am filling out a form which I would also use print for or I would simply type it on a computer.
I use print for writing and I don't recall the ins and outs of cursive, but what I remember combined with muscle memory might allow me to write some cursive if I needed to.
I use print for writing and I don't recall the ins and outs of cursive, but what I remember combined with muscle memory might allow me to write some cursive if I needed to.