I generally write the address in print/block to ensure the machine can read it and then I write the message in cursive. Some profiles request no cursive.
Hi Gatton!
If the receiver requests block letters, he gets block letters. If I write to someone in an Asian/Arabic country I use block letters. Otherwise, I normally use cursive. The situation is a bit muddy in Eastern Europe. If I know that the country uses a latin script, Iâll write in cursive, otherwise in block letters.
Thatâs my rule of thumb and, of course, exceptions are possible. If someone writes that he/she is interested in calligraphy, I always use cursive, for example. If the Postcrosser is very young Iâll probably use block letters,
Sometimes I have a hard time reading American cursive or cursive of people from countries where they normally use the Cyrilic script.
I was taught cursive at school, my mother decades before in another kind of cursive, my father, originally from Italy, also used another cursive style. His mother a totally different. I also can read (but not write) âSuetterlinâ style.
And I worked for almost 20 years as a doctorâs assistant. So far I had no handwriting I couldnât decipher 
But I try to write in block letters, at least to countries outside of Europe, especially to Asia as I had a lot of Asian profiles in the past who asked for a clear non-cursive handwriting. And due to my arthrosis itâs better for the recipients I use block letters 
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I went to school in the 1970s. We learned the 1900s one.
Although as I matured I moved away from the L, G, and S, that I was taught in cursive.
Iâm afraid youâve been lied to⌠
There are several different âschool latin scriptsâ in use in Germany, and they have slight (or not so slight) regional differences, and have also changed over the years, but none of them include using two overlapping Vs to make a W. The crossed out letter Z is regularly seen, though, and I almost always use it. We do have to cross out our 7s, though!
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My calligraphy comes from the Palmer Method we were taugh in secondary school.
Right now, I write with a hybrid version, because I donât like to write a big round a as a Capital A, for example. Or the Q looking like a 2.
However, I try always to write my postcards in âprintâ to avoid to make my message difficult to read.
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When I send a postcard to China or Japan, I always write in capital letters. Maybe itâs not necessary but they often mentioned in their hurray messages that my handwriting was very easy to read 
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Thatâs the exact same style that I learned! I agree with you about the Q, I never felt right about it. I also stopped putting those little loops on the tops of the capital letters. I remember my grandmother saying that my cursive writing was âneat, but not very prettyâ 
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I always like the old American cursive, sometimes I receive a card written in that hand, it reminds me of old Hollywood movies when they show a handwritten card or letter.
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I had a penfriend in Germany and I have such a hard time to read her letter ! But I have a great pleasure to read her. I have to take my time to understand everything, itâs relaxating !
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Ha! At age 59 I must be in the older generation; likely I did learn it in school but I have printed as long as I can remember and can not read it. My dad would write long letters to me and I would have to ask someone to help me. Iâm not ignorant, I actually have 4 college degrees and have taught at University for almost 20 years. I appreciate the beauty of script but its a mystery to me!
I think for people from countries that doesnât use Latin or similar alphabet itâs harder to read cursive. When I learn English in school we talked about cursive English writing really briefly because some of students was curious about it. Maybe thatâs why itâs hard for me to read cursive.
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You mean you werenât taught at all how to write the new alphabet or you were taught the print script?
@hankadl We were taught the print script. You canât learn another language without learning new alphabet at all 
That makes sense, thanks 
This thread assumes talking about latin alphabet but all the people who I know who learned cyrillics learned the cursive version for writing. They laughed that a certain combination of letters look like one shape repeated many times But it makes me think if you only have cursive and no print script for writing or it is just the preference here to teach cursive?
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For Cyrillic alphabet it mostly cursive. Only little kids who start to learn letters are writing in print script. Later everyone learn cursive. In adult life you could be asked to write in print script when youâre filling documents that will be read by machines (I imagine itâs hard for computer to understand cursive) But mostly people write in cursive.
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Weâre from Belgium but we moved to Australia in December 2017.
For some bizarre reason, cursive handwriting is not taught here in the schools. So my oldest son can read cursive because he learned it in Belgium, but my other two sons are younger and they canât.
My handwriting is like a secret code to them.
So itâs not all elderly or Asian people that might struggle⌠but also Australian youth. 
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So strange to hear that children in Australia arenât taught cursive. I learnt it growing up in Canada and the kids here in the Netherlands also learn it. I hope it continues.
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Great topic! This is very interesting to me.
I like calligraphy and trained myself to read cursive handwriting. But I canât write it because Iâm not taught at school. (My husband learned it at an international school, so I often ask.)
I know a little difference from country to country. This topic is very helpful. Thank you!
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