Question

[lolishipper.livejournal.com]

I'm new to learning Russian, and was wondering if its considered strange to write in block letter form. My cursive is horrible, and I find it easier to write in block, but dont want to seem wierd.

Comments

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

I think you'll find cursive writing only in primary school, all grownups are writing in block letters.

[shimshoni.livejournal.com]

Why do you think so???
Russian block (print) letters are ok only for for kindergarten "students". Starting from the first grade and to the death everybody use cursive. Print writing looks veeery strange.

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

I used cursive until 5th grade, then I did technical drafting for my older brother.
On drawings averithing, including text, has to be done by standard. In USSR ГОСТ text has to be in block letters, so I started to write like that everywhere.

Works for me.

[shimshoni.livejournal.com]

Then you better talk about yourself only, and not about the majority of population. Block letters are good for ads and books but not for common handwriting.

Sorry for spoking for all people

[russian-bob.livejournal.com]

Most people I know write kind of block letters from USSR ГОСТ (engineers, naturally)
Other people I know are doctors - you can not read their writing anyway you look, so it must be cursive.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

In IT-challenged or totally non-IT places where handwriting is the only available form, it's inevitable. But if one's working in an office with "personal" computers and functional e-mail and printers, it's unlikely it's gonna be handwritten, unless the power goes out and the computers stop to work.

[oryx_and_crake]

Who does manual technical drafting now anyway? And who cares what font it used? It was done by engineers who are a minuscule part of the population, and now it is all done by computers. 99% of the population have never seen a technical draft, and never will. If you write in block letters, it is well and good, just don't say that everyone does that.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Don't be so assured. ;) Actually, few grownups write in pure block letters now.

[nekotjonok.livejournal.com]

I've never seen adults writing in blocks, only preschool children.

[hellga.livejournal.com]

Like in any other place, in Russia quite a few adults have barely legible handwriting, so I wouldn't get too hung up on that. Bblock letters are generally not seen in anyone older than first-graders... unlike in US, in Russia it has never caught on. There is still a lot of in-class writing done by hand so you have to learn to write fast, and writing in cursive IS much faster than writing block letters... well, at least that was the case ten years ago when I graduated. Perhaps when some of today's kids grow up they will not really write in cursive, but for now, for you it would be considered weird, probably. But as a foreigner, you will always be cut a lot of slack by native speakers.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Well, almost nobody writes in block now, as cursive was heavily emphasised in primary school, so even those whose handwriting simplified with time still show strong signs of cursive training. But really nobody gives a damn about handwriting in Russia, if it's legible then it's okay. If it's not -- you can be assured that it would receive a couple of mild curses (as almost all doctors get constantly) but nothing more.

[imma2qoot4u.livejournal.com]

you might actually find after studying Russian that you'll end up preferring cursive as opposed to print. It really is more simpler than the block letters, and now (for myself) i write my english in cursive, as I just got used to it better.

[xxsmoothopexx.livejournal.com]

Only very young children write in block letters, everyone else uses cursive. :P

[lolishipper.livejournal.com]

k, thanks everyone

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

I had written cursive until about the graduation from school. But I never liked it because it almost always looked to me irregular and/or unintelligible, especially combinations of л, м, и, ш that don't stand out of the repetitious cursive-i-like pattern. So, I stopped writing cursive. I've never bothered to learn to write cursive English either, since I didn't ever need to as virtually all English was either in electronic or printed form. I think school is the only place where cursive is (was) required and inescapable (at least in the past, when computers and printers weren't so widely spread).
You can learn to write cursive, but IMHO it won't probably give you much advantage.

[oryx_and_crake]

I think you don't have to worry about it. In modern life it is very rarely that you need to handwrite anything - it's mostly e-mails and texting. And I am sure that your readers don't care how you write as long as it is legible.

On the other hand, if you need to write a lot for some reason, you would be much better off with cursive for a very simple reason: it is easier to write. It is streamlined and designed for manual writing, while the printed fonts all have very un-ergonomical small details and curlicues that are a hassle to draw and will slow you down.

[cassandraclue.livejournal.com]

When I started learning Russian, our teacher told us that now was the chance for all of us who have terrible handwriting in English to start over and have nice handwriting.

But even people who do print instead of using cursing take the forms of their printed letters from the more streamlined cursive chapes, generally, from what I've noticed.

[ex-roumor.livejournal.com]

block and cursive both fine.
it doesnt look strange to use block letters.

and if you want someone to understand your writings use block
because cursive is just fucked up among many people

[kerakera-onna.livejournal.com]

I caught on pretty quickly to cursive in my studies - took about two weeks of serious practice but it helps tremendously when I'm trying to take notes quickly. Classmates who write in block end up asking me what on Earth such-n-such a slide said because they couldn't write fast enough. It becomes second nature after a little bit of initial effort.

[turu.livejournal.com]

It is all about a time. Maybe not now, but after you learned this language w sometime, you will be able to write it w some sort of cursive style (and I believe Teachers tend to prefer you to write w block rather "stunning" cursive while you are on beginner level :-p

Nice userpic, btw. Did you draw it by yourself ?

[boolka.livejournal.com]

normaly you shoudn't write in block like children do: http://www.poznayka.ru/uploads/creative/babushke.jpg it's funny, even ridiculous. adults should write like this: http://nekin.narod.ru/images/e25-all-letters.gif
but they may also do like this: http://stat10.privet.ru/lr/0814ea6d8fb6feb4ade1163ce1f327a7 it's ok.
usualy adults do like this: http://st.free-lance.ru/users/sarkazm/upload/filey2uNGJ.gif it's fine too

and don't be shy. everyone starts with auwful writing. no exeptions :) http://toogeza.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/school_paperbook-8.jpg

putin does like this: http://www.gamo.ru/arhiv/pic/PutinHandWrit.gif

and if you are md, you can write even like this: http://www.myphotoalbum.ru/photo/kids/42742.jpg doctors writings always are terrible, but no one cares :)

[aitqandai.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've been studying Russian for several years and the words on that toogeza.com link are very hard to read. And it turns out that it's because about half of the words on that page are not Russian words - they are Finnish. I think that was an assignment sheet for a Russian student who was learning Finnish. :)

[boolka.livejournal.com]

i guess so, but my point was, that his writings are auwful and looks like children's (i think he really is quite young). and it's ok, we all write like this, me too :)

[ualexj.livejournal.com]

I've never seen adults writing in blocks too, only gastarbeiters!