https://xkcd.com/2912

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𝓘 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓴 𝓬𝓪𝓹𝓲𝓽𝓪𝓵 𝓛 𝓲𝓼 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓵𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓯𝓾𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝔀𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮, 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓬𝓪𝓼𝓮 𝓺 𝓲𝓼 𝓪𝓵𝓼𝓸 𝓪 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻.

  • Ilflish@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Cursive f is actually way to high the whole point of cursive is to learn to write fast and cursive f is slower. I’m sure a large amount of people aren’t even aware it’s an f ( the middle right two)

    • Jorgelino@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      It’s really no more time consuming than any other letter. It might look a bit bigger, bit it’s just two loops, which is a very quick and natural movement that you’ll be doing a lot if you write in cursive.

      It’s more about following the flow of the lines than the size of the letters. Each letter should feed into the next one, so you’ll barely need to take your hand off the paper for the same word. Even if you choose to make an especially “high f”, that’d still take less than a second of you know what you’re doing.

      (Also, as has already been pointed out, second one is a J)

    • aulin@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Are either of them even in the picture? If so they definitely don’t look like the ones I learned in school.

        • aulin@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Oh, wtf! I just looked up US cursive, and that thing is apparently a G? The horror! That’s certainly not what a cursive G looks like where I’m from. And your capital S just looks like a bigger lowercase s. Same with capital A. Why does it look like a lowercase a?!

          Edit: The cursive we learned 30 years ago, for comparison: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Svssfb.jpg

          • Jorgelino@lemmy.ml
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            3 months ago

            Yeah, it was about the same for me too.

            Although, to be fair, a lot of these aren’t really consistent, even within the same country. I’ve seen both types of S and A around, though it’s the first time i see that weird G.

            Honestly, most of the more complicated ones aren’t really used where i’m from at all. Like, if you’re really trying to be fancy, sure, i could see it, but the writing i see day to day is a lot more simplified. Whole point is to write fast anyway.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I just modified v to be pointy because otherwise I couldn’t make it distinguishable from u.

    • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Hard disagree. I am an ecologist and paper notes are very common just for reasons of practicality, taking notes on a tablet or field computer can be really difficult with glare, managing power, overheating, rain. The faster and more legibley you can write, the better you’ll be on the job. I doubt that ecology is the only field where this is true. Not everyone has a dang office job.

        • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          But cursive is more useful and practical than writing print. If you’re taking notes, you want to take them quickly and still be legible. Cursive is a system for this.

            • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              I don’t disagree with that! Maybe we should start learning shorthand.

              I do think it is valuable to read cursive though, for historical study. I joined an informal LGBT history study group and we got to spend a lot of time reading love letters people sent each other. Not everything is transcribed, so I’m glad I was taught to read cursive.

              You could argue that only historians should learn it, but I think that historical research is something that should be widely accessible, and also it’s easier for young kids to learn language skills. I don’t think there is any harm in teaching cursive.

              • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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                3 months ago

                Reading cursive should be a thing, I think with kids being so digital centric you could probably just teach it to them as a font? It is, after all, supposed to be English text written in the Latin alphabet, just all joined up.

    • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      I think kids should be introduced to it, so they recognize what it is if they find one of great grandma’s letters, for instance (my grandmother wrote the grocery lists in cursive so I became proficient in reading it), and it’s a good way of helping kids practice fine motor skills without doing as many of those godawful penmanship exercises. But I think we need to expand art education for kids and I think cursive and calligraphy should be taught in art classes moreso than in their regular classrooms.

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

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

        • Successful_Try543@feddit.de
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          3 months ago

          I didn’t mean the word, but the way some people write the letters ‘m’ and ‘n’ with the bows downwards, so that the look really similar to ‘w’ and ‘u’.

          • megane-kun@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            Oh, yeah! Sometimes context helps, but if you can’t even read a single word, you’re just out of luck!

        • megane-kun@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          You got me writing ‘vacuum’ and ‘anniversary’ in cursive, and got so conscious about how I write it that my speed crawled to a stop and my handwriting got even worse than what I started with, lol!

          In casual writing, I separate out v, w and other letters that are trickier to write in full cursive. Same goes with t, i, j so that I can do the crosses and dots before moving on.

          All those seems to have done the job of making my cursive a bit easier to read. All hell breaks loose when I need to write really fast though.


          EDIT: stupid formatting, lol!

            • megane-kun@lemm.ee
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              3 months ago

              I tried writing them so that I can post this. I might have failed in making them both cursive and legible, lol!

              That very last line is my attempt at writing at speed. 😅

              • peto@lemm.ee
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                3 months ago

                Man, this must be what it feels like to be a teacher, all the time. It’s cool though, much better than I can manage.

                • megane-kun@lemm.ee
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                  3 months ago

                  Lol~‌ Thanks.

                  I grew up at a time when cursive is a requirement–not just for one class, but for all classes in primary school. I remember our teachers checking our notebooks and making comments on our handwriting. All our compositions and essays were required to be in cursive, and they check for penmanship, keeping margins and all that. It was a whole lot of effort for something that I rarely get to use in higher levels. I switched to print in HS, when cursive is no longer required.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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.

    • 🇰 🔵 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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      3 months ago

      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.

      • ouRKaoS@lemmy.today
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        3 months ago

        You’re just below the curve of home computers becoming ubiquitous. I’m 43, and through most of middle school papers had to be handwritten in cursive.

        At home my computer was from Radio Shack, hooked to a TV, and had a Daisy Wheel printer - fonts were hardware. I got my first IBM PC in 8th grade, with a 20mb hard drive & dual 5 1/4" floppies.

      • SimplyTadpole@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 months ago

        In my school, we were taught to/made to write in cursive since like 4. And then everyone complained that my handwriting was illegible chicken scratch and yelled at me to write more legibly.

        Then I switched to non-cursive (whatever you call writing the same shape as the text in the page here?) and immediately my text became legible. Then everyone switched to complaining that I write too slow.

        I just can’t win.

      • viking@infosec.pub
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        3 months ago

        I’m 39 as well, and up until 10th grade it was mandatory, only afterwards it was left to us to choose. And that’s across all subjects.

        We were not allowed to use computers to prepare papers in high school until grade 12 I think.

        • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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          3 months ago

          I’m older than that and I can’t believe your teachers actually wanted to try decipher shitty kid writing. After like 6th grade for me everyone pretty much turned up their noses at anything that wasn’t typed, and as a teacher now I can say I hate when my students try to hand in something handwritten.

          Even before computers I think at least at the college level using typewriters was pretty common. When I was a kid I found a stash of college papers from my folks and a lot of it was done on a typewriter.

          • viking@infosec.pub
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            3 months ago

            They didn’t want to decipher it, if our handwriting was bad, we got points deducted or could ultimately fail.

            My handwriting is still shit though.

      • HopFlop@discuss.tchncs.de
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        3 months ago

        I found cursive to be the most useful thing ever for exams because of its speed compared to writing block letters.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

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

    • HenryWong327@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      Wait your signature is supposed to just be your name in cursive? But then wouldn’t that defeat the point? I thought in the olden days it was supposed to be like a proof that you were the right person since you knew how your signature was written.

      Anyways, for my signature I just kinda designed it. It was ages ago so I forgot my process, but it was deliberate and I remember making a whole bunch of sketches before finding one I liked. And since then I’ve incrementally improved it.

      • Seasoned_Greetings@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        Although cursive has a unified design, everyone writes cursive a little differently. The idea is that cursive is designed to write whole words in a single stroke. The concept of a secure signature in cursive is that the more work a single stroke is, the more uniquely a person writes it.

        That is to say, even though you may have the same name as someone else, it’s extremely unlikely that a person can copy your nuances precisely enough to forge your signature on the fly. It isn’t a perfect system, but it’s easy enough to verify a signature that people could do it before technology was around to aid that process.

        That concept is also why they say the actual design of your signature is less important than the consistency of doing it the same every time.

        • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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          3 months ago

          There was some guy years and years ago who tried to see how ridiculous he could make his signature and have a store still accept it. As I recall he got to the point of drawing pictures on the receipt. Eventually he tried to buy something expensive like a TV for +1000 bucks before someone finally said something.

          Of course now that search engines suck I’m having trouble finding the writeup he did.

          • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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            3 months ago

            At one time illiterate people could just mark an X. The security of a signature isn’t really in it’s uniqueness or it’s relationship with your name. Security of a signature is down to the fact that you could to prison for forgery if you fake someone else’s signature.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Everyone I know my age and older signs their name in an approximation of cursive, but in a unique way.

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      I just write my name like I usually write it?

      It’s very rare for me to sign anything anyways.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Yeah, but badly print because I have terrible handwriting.

          A signature can be whatever the fuck you want.

          It can be a drawing of a pony if you so desire.

          Also is it still possible to sign when doing a card purchase where you live? I have never seen anyone ever do that and some stores explicitly disallow it.

    • Malfeasant@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’m almost 50 and I’ve always had a signature that looks like I just wrote my name like normal. I’ve had a few people try to tell me it’s not a “real” signature. WTFever, it’s mine, and if someone tries to fake it, you’ll still be able to tell the difference, isn’t that the whole point?

    • HopFlop@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      In Germany, we did learn cursive (and its still being taught). Although barely anyone uses it anymore, I find it very useful for exams

    • BluesF@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I put an unreasonable amount of effort into a cool signature. But I so rarely have to sign anything these days! Disappointing.

  • Tier 1 Build-A-Bear 🧸@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Hard disagree on this one, the lowercase k needs to be way more to the right, or at the very least should have h i and l to the left of it. k looks so kool.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      3 months ago

      I always was taught to call it joined up but it’s the same thing. Basically where all of the letters just flow from one to the next so it looks like you’re writing in Arabic. The key is to make it as illegible as possible.

    • UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      insert language is easy to read when you know insert language

      I think part of the problem lies in how cursive directly derived from print letters so shit like S, Z, and r makes you wonder who came up with this.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      3 months ago

      Machine coding is also easy to read if you know binary

      Good thing it is the 21st century where those things aren’t needed anymore

    • psud@aussie.zone
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      3 months ago

      When you know the right cursive. We used slightly clearer letter shapes in Australia in the 80s

      Though knowing any cursive makes it easier to decode unfamiliar ones

  • aulin@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    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

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      3 months ago

      That’s interesting I’ve just realized that when I write x I start at the bottom left if I’m writing it normal but in the top left if doing cursive.

      Huh.

      • aulin@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        But how do you you even write it when starting top left? Do you just write it as a backslash and then go back and add the second stroke once the word is finished? Or do you do some convoluted thing where you go in every direction while perfectly retracing your old strokes, to draw the whole thing in one go?

        • Dasus@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Same as with dotting i’s or crossing t’s, really.

          I often found that pictures speak louder than words, and it’s pictured in my earlier link.

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      3 months ago

      I think you’re looking at the uppercase x. The lowercase x is just below that and the stroke starts at the bottom left.

      • aulin@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        No, I’m looking at the lowercase one. I don’t understand why it comes in at bottom left but goes to top left before starting the letter.

        • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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          3 months ago

          When you have a letter that finishes at the bottom (like n in the word manx), the x starts at the bottom left and then rises to form the first downward stroke just like in the printed x. If you have a letter that finishes at the top like o, the x stroke doesn’t start at the bottom. See the sample below in the word fox

          • aulin@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Yes, I gathered. I was just wondering what the reason is for starting the x at the top, when it’s easier, imo, to do as we do and start at the bottom.