Hi Poscrossers,
I’m wondering how you all decide how you’re going to write your messages. I grew up in the US being taught cursive English. However as I got older I abandoned this style for more of a “block printing” style. Lately I’ve been enamored with using fountain pens and it reminded me how I’ve wanted to improve my handwriting. But what should I go with? Should I improve my old cursive or try and make my printing more legible and attractive? What do others here think?
Also I’m wondering about people who don’t speak English as a first language. Do they generally have issues with English cursive? Or is that taught in schools along with English instruction?
I don’t mind. I write in my normal handwriting (a mixture of cursive and block letters) except when someone mentions to kindly only use block letters. I don’t have problems reading different styles of cursive, only when it’s a real bad handwriting in general.
I ususally go for block letters unless I know the recipient can read cursive. I myself have no problems reading anything though (parmacist )
In general I think if you want to improve your handwriting you should practice your „normal“ style to make it more legible.
Honestly cursive in any language is really hard for me to read, even if it’s my mother’s handwriting, which I’ve spent my whole life reading. Then again, that’s also because I’ve had really bad eyes since I was about eight years old
I’m good at reading bad handwriting, cursive, etc. It doesn’t matter to me. Perhaps because my own handwriting is a mess as well sometimes
I do my best to write a bit bigger and more clearly when a profile makes it clear the user has little English, in the hopes of helping them read the postcard more easily.
English cursive is different than other cursives. It is also not taught in schools - in my native Germany we just wrote in our own cursive or mix of cursive and block letters (proper English instruction didn’t start until 5th grade while handwriting instruction stops with grade 4). I think countries with another alphabet (Russia, far Asia …) exclusively learn print.
I can read English cursive alright, I think it is fairly close to French cursive. But Germany has simplified it’s cursive multiple times during the 20th century and most adult Germans I know develop their own handwriting between cursive and print. On postcards, I try to be closer to print, but tend to be a little negligent when writing to Germans.
I write everything in cursive because that’s how I was taught to write. Writing in print script is something I have to concentrate on so I use it only for the address and when someone mentions they can’t read cursive. I personally have no problem reading cursive. It is a bit different in every country and it is very different from person to person. I wonder what English cursive looks like?
By the way, when I was in primary school and my father wrote something to the teacher, I always had to read it for her because his hadwriting is exceptionally illegible
I learned cursive handwriting in school, and we were forced to use cursive handwriting during primary school. “Write as you want when you’re finished at this school. But while you’re a pupil here, you have to use cursive writing!” I generally don’t have a problem undestand cursive writing, although I have to read a word twice to figure it out on rare occations. One time I had a really hard time understanding the message written in cursive on a postcard. Tried reading it and left it for a few hours. When I tried again, I managed to figure it out.
I still write cursive most of the time. But if I send a postcard for the fully written tag for instance, I usually use block print to make sure my tiny writing is legible. And if I send postcards to people in China and Japan for instance, I use block print because their script is different from mine. Some Chinese members have said that they find it difficult to understand cursive handwriting.
Most of my cards I write in a more print style to make it legible for people who learn a different alphabet. Fellow Germans may receive proper handwriting sometimes, but I am so used to the (tinier) print writing that I think I kind if adapted it as a second handwriting already
I always use my normal handwriting, which is rather Block letter-ish with a bit of cursive mixed in. I guess it’s pretty readable. I have to say that proper! American cursive is very pretty but might be hard to read for people whose native language doesn’t use Latin writing. Also, some people have a so-called “Sauklaue” (scrawl in English, as Google told me) and in this case, cursive or block letters don’t really matter.
The cursive taught at schools may differ a bit from country to country, but not to the extent that English language teachers actually teach the English version - at least not in Germany or Poland - and to my experience the different handwiriting styles are all mutually understandable. (As long as we don’t talk about small kids only just learning to write.)
Personally I use cursive, or a kind of mixture between cursive and print, when writing postcards to countries that use the Latin alphabet. Only for those postcrossers who use a different alphabet in their own language, I put in some extra effort to print my letters carefully.
When I started at Postcrossing I decided to use cursive to people in countries with the Latin alphabet. To countries with Cyrillic, Chinese or other fonts I used block letters (print fonts).
Nowadays, I use almost only print fonts because I can make better use of the available space on a postcard. I usually want to write a lot, with cursive there are often problems because of the loops (the descenders and the acscenders of cursive writing).
But I sometimes use cursive script when I think a member appreciates it.
that your card seems interesting and beautiful (if anybody can read it or not)
that the receiver will understand all of your text or at least the most of it
to make the reading as hard as possible (for all)
I have received thousands of postcards and even more letters in my life. All mentioned categories have been received. Personally I appreciate the point 2 most and that’s why I always try to write as clearly as possible.
I got a ‘hurray’ message today where the receiver thought my name was ‘Hannah’ (quite different from Alys) and just before I got an email reminding me about ID as a person had trouble registering it - I know it could have been a number of things - I might even have forgotten to put it on who knows but also might have been due to my handwriting…
Your post is about Sutterlin, but unfortunately I am finding the same thing true of things written in “normal” German script. When Germans write German in cursive I find myself often passing the card off to my (native German) husband and even between the two of us we haven’t a clue what the person’s name is and start trying to decipher their name letter by letter so I can write a “hurray” to them or even figure out what in the heck their message is about.
I find English cursive the hardest to read when written by people from Germany or the Netherlands. Again, even with two people in the house (one native American and one German) we often can’t make out what is being said. From other countries, including native-English countries (where you would suppose the writing could be sloppier), cursive English is usually more understandable for both of us than it is from these countries.
No idea why this is so, but I am really enjoying the analyses in this thread!
For Officials I write in normal print (which to me means both upper and lowercase letters) and not block print (which again to me means all uppercase letters but with the capital letters written larger). I think it is easier than cursive to read for most people and also can be more easily imported into a translation program if the person needs one, so I use that.
For personal letters, I usually write in cursive or a hybrid.
Cursive can be very different and some letters may vary so much, that they are illegible for people elsewhere. E. g. the U. S. capital letter i looks to me like a knot or the capital letter g looks somehow indefinate and weird. So I suggest to use decent block writing.
And the ink of a fountain pen may blur and bleach out, so better use a ball pen.
I had English at school, but not your cursive writing and German cursive writing is not exactly the same.
I would prefer to write in cursive, but I default to writing in print for postcards because a lot of people don’t know how to read cursive. Maybe I should start experimenting again with writing some of the postcards in cursive.
)
I have to say that proper! American cursive is very pretty but might be hard to read for people whose native language doesn’t use Latin writing. Also, some people have a so-called “Sauklaue” (scrawl in English, as Google told me) and in this case, cursive or block letters don’t really matter. 