All about handwriting

We were taught cursive writing at school, unfortunately at that time I had a broken wrist and was not supposed to write. Of course it was my dominant hand that I broke. So I never learned to make a lot of the cursive letters correctly so my “cursive” is a bit of a mix between cursive and printed. My letters aren’t all joined up and some of them I just make completely differently.

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I got a postcard. I can’t translate it. I don’t understand the handwriting. can someone help me?

@MaggieTk

yes.
just upload the photo here and show us.

I can sometimes read cursive writing, but usually it’s quite hard! As a visually impaired person it’s sometimes super hard read cards :tired_face:

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This is the cursive style I learned in the 1990s. I was homeschooled but I think it’s similar to what was taught in public schools at the time. I never quite mastered it though, and my handwriting has become a mixture of cursive and print at this point. I like to use cursive letters for their loopiness and ease of joining letters together, but there are some letters I print because I just find it easier.

I also tend to write my 7s with the horizontal bar through them, and sometimes my 0s with the diagonal slash, especially in cases where it could be mistaken for an O.

I find the day/month/year format of writing dates more logical than the typical US month/day/year but I don’t want to confuse people so I have compromised with writing the day as a number, writing the month out by name, then writing the year as a number so, for example, 13 March 2022. I figure this way there is no confusion.

Many students in the US are no longer taught cursive, from what I understand, so younger people (20s and younger) may have a difficult time reading it.

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No, please don’t upload it here.
It is not allowed to make backsides of cards public

Please show it here :arrow_right: Need help translating a postcard you've received?
In this Topic all posts will be deleted after ≈ 2 weeks.

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Ок

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I always wanted to write cursive but I am not really good at it.
I appreciate good pennmanship. Sometimes I like buying old cards from eBay that are very neatly written.
This is an example od an old card I bought from eBay , the text of which, I think looks fantastic:

I’d like to receive cards with cursive or written with calligraphy but so far I haven’t received any. :pensive:

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Since you are from Japan I’ve got to ask you why every Japanese card that I’ve received looks extremely neatly and uniformly written??
It’s almost as if they are using some kind of special computer font…

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Hello @FoTiS
At the moment, @clubpostcards cannot reply to any post because her forum account is on hold.
She asked me to help her reply and explain the situation to you. I believe she would reply you once the problem with her forum account is fixed. :blush:
Here’s more details on the situation.

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I don’t have problem to read or write cursive. I prefer it, it’s more beautiful. But I will use print caracter when I write to someone who don’t use latin alphabet.

Hello. I am new to the forum, so sorry if I am using it incorrectly.
I am a 54-year-old Japanese, and I have no problem reading and writing cursive.
I don’t want you all to get into a fight, I would like to tell you something accurate.
Cursive was compulsory in English education in Japan until 1992. It was in 2004 that cursive was removed from the curriculum guidelines for Japanese junior high schools.
Approximately any Japanese born after 1989 (currently under 33) is not taught cursive in school.
In my time, when I first learned English at junior high, We were taught both cursive and block letters, and we were encouraged to write our notes and boards in cursive.
So, for postcrossers over a certain age, I don’t think there is any problem with cursive. Of course, this is only if it is written neatly :wink:

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Hi everyone,

What an interesting topic!
A whole new world opened up to me…
Before I read this topic, I was not even aware of the fact that there even was a difference between cursive and print writing… I allways thought it were all just personal touches to handwriting, and there was only a difference between ´handwriting´ and ´block letters´. Now I learned that there are 3 types of ´handwriting´: cursive, print writing and block letters. And in all of them you have a base of how it was originaly learned (at school or otherwise), and personal style, both implemented in time and culture.
And this is for the roman alphabeth… how is it for other alphabets?

Personaly I can read almost every handwriting, in roman,
but it is realy hard for me to write in block letters and I cannot write in print… the upside down to many other postcrossers…
I think I am gonna start practicing :wink:
My handwriting is flowing and balanced, many find it beautiful, many also hard to understand… I realy do my best to write as clear as possible on PC cards… And when someone writes in their profile they prefer print writing, I allways respect that and use my old typewriter - wich I allways use for the adress, to be sure it is clear :wink:

To me personaly, I LOVE all these different handwritings, and I love when someone signs their name sponatiously (even when it means sometimes I will only be sure of it after registration).

Thank you this lovely community to make me a richer and more aware human being

:four_leaf_clover:

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I sent a postcard to the US from Australia using the middle 4 (just like this one!) and I was sent a message from admin requesting that I write clearly as the recipient contacted them for help deciphering it. I think my writing is very neat and clear and get many comments to this effect, so I could only assume that she was unfamiliar with that number. (She mentioned in her registration message that she thought they were 9’s).

Since then I often write the ID number twice and write the numbers differently for each

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Block letters are rarely ever used in English. They are mostly for making signs, to emphasize a single word or phrase, and maybe for titles. They are not intended to be used to write a letter, for instance, as they are very hard to read.

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The current use of block letters in a handwritten note is almost the same in Belgium I think.

When I went to primary school, about 35 years ago, we learned ´beautiful handwriting´ (cursive) and ´print letters´, wich were also called ´block letters´, and were actualy block letters and not print as is spoken of in this topic.
So we never learned print, not even that it excisted…!
We were trained to write as beautiful as possible - allways cursive. But the actual letters differed from where you went to school, even in the same village. So by the time I was in high school, I ´composed´ my own handwriting, a mixture of what I saw with different people (also from different ages and different countries) or teachers, what I found beautiful and what felt flowing for my hand. And so did everyone around me.
Block letters were used for titles, emphases, for when someone could not read many different handwritings/your handwriting, or when it had to be anoymous :wink:
Even now, it is still the same in schools. When my child changed school at the age of 6, they had some cursive letters they wrote different there. And my cousins in different schools also have different handwritings.
So for me reading about ´the English cursive´ or ´the German cursive´ was a surprise…! Maybe there is a ´the Belgian cursive´, but I never saw it… I only saw a rainbow of cursive handwritings :wink:
Maybe this is why I can read many handwritings, an why I did not know the differerence between cursive and print was more than just personal style?

So interesting :slight_smile:

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There are time i find curive difficult to read especially when its a doctors prescription but years as a medic has helpe me with that what i dind more difficult to read at times is numbers 4s sometime look like 7s. 1s sometimes look like 7s also. 3s like 5s 9s look like a lower case g and then o if it has a line through itor sams as 7 i think its the way European are taught compaired to brittish way of teaching

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@FoTiS
Wow! I love such old-fashioned penmanship! And it’s one of the old handwritings one can read.

In case someone wants to try different handwritten fonts, I can recommend this reprint (please kindly ignore my fingers). It’s in German though. :innocent: :face_in_clouds:



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I believe that this standard message from the admins is rather passive-aggressive.
Could be that the other person was a bit lazy trying to figure out what the numbers were so I wouldn’t take this very seriously

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I’m wondering.
Has anyone ever received a card written with a typewriter?