[Katsuo]

Starting tomorrow (Monday) NHK is broadcasting a series of twelve 5-minute programs that teach adult handwriting (行書). Title: 簡単ルールで大人の字を書く. Details:

NHK channel 3 (Education) Monday to Thursday 11:55-12:00 (programs 5-12 are repeated the same day 21:55-22:00), January 5th to 22nd 2009. Book to accompany the broadcasts is ISBN 978-4-14-827166-9

I watched the above series first time round, and picked up some useful tips.

There was an earlier series (a couple of years ago) on how to write in an attractive style: 簡単ルールできれいな字を書く。That series was later released in a book + DVD format.

I guess the present series will also be released on DVD in six months or so.

Thanks for the reminder - I've just set the recorder.

That's really cool. The TV teaches you stuff in Japan. You know, here in America, all the TV does is try to scare you into buying stuff.

[Katsuo]

alyks Wrote:That's really cool. The TV teaches you stuff in Japan.

NHK have a whole channel for educational programs. At the moment I'm following one on robotics starring baby robot CB2.

Thanks for the info. My handwriting is horrible, so I'll definitely check this out.

Cool. Thanks for the info.

Sometimes they'll show this stuff on TV-Japan in the US, which is a mix of the various NHK channels, so we get bits of this and that. They recently ran a 2-3 week series on Sumi-E that was interesting-- sort of a, "Here's how to do the basic Sumi-E strokes," taught by a very nice lady who could paint very nice pictures, while two presenters who didn't know squat about it tried to learn along. It's part of a series about crafts and hobbies, where they just go from hobby to hobby, showing people how to do them. I think last week they just finished up a course in photography.

Sometimes TV-Japan is really on the ball about showing things as they happen, and sometimes we don't see stuff for months. They're really on the ball with doramas, for some reason. The new Taiga dorama is already airing over here, and they showed all sorts of new year's programming. But then sometimes a show will come on, and you'll see a little note at the top of the screen, saying that it aired 6-9 months ago in Japan. Weird.

As I didn't have to work today I took a look at the first installment of　the program ( まる特マガジン). It's somewhat more advanced stuff that what I concern myself with at this point. Today's lesson focused on writing the　ぎょうしょ　style as opposed to the standard style.

As it happens, I stumbled across an upload of this first episode over at edited. It's low quality but watchable. However, the audio is poor, apparently because of interference on channel 3 of the computer tv tuner used by the person who recorded the video. Still, there may be people here interested in watching it.

As with all free edited posts it is limited to 10 downloads. If you are a novice I would suggest that you don't bother downloading it as it really won't be of any use to you.

Edit: Hmm. After I posted this I read the forum rules and decided it would not fit within the rules to post the link to the file. So if someone is really interested feel free to email me and I will reply to you.

Edit: argh never mind

[Katsuo]

markal Wrote:Today's lesson focused on writing the　ぎょうしょ　style

Yes, the whole present series is on gyousho (行書), which could be considered as equivalent to "joined-up" or adult handwriting in English.

The earlier series I mentioned in reply #1 focused on kaisho (楷書), that is to say square-style writing. That is the style found in most printed media. The first program in the new series today included a brief summary of the three main points from the earlier series.

People usually first learn to write characters in square style, then later develop a gyousho style.

Some reasons gyousho can be useful include:

1) You can write far more quickly
2) You can more easily understand other people's handwriting
3) Your own writing will look like that of an adult.

Is there a way to see this from abroad? A torrent tracker or something?

I just saw the 1st two episodes. They're fantastic! Because each episode is only 5 minutes long, the instructor just teaches a few core points. In today's lesson, he shows a practice technique where you scribble in loops and in zig-zag patterns. With just 3 different patterns, you have the basics of writing in cursive Kanji.

Amazing!

I'm tempted to go out tonight and get a book which shows the 行書 for all the Kanji so I can begin to do all my reviews in 行書 instead.

@kfmfe: If you find a good book that lists 行書, can you give us the ISBN number for it here?

@nac_est: most NHK courses will wind up in book form eventually, if that's any consolation. The digital photography show on TV-Japan they're showing now is already in book form, which they advertised at the end of the most recent episode.

I think this is the book you may want as a reference. Look at the user supplied image-- it shows how to write the character in all 3 styles. Neat stuff.

http://tinyurl.com/9yu73u

HA! Found the NHK magazine book for the new series!

http://tinyurl.com/7yzllc

EDIT: I'm pretty sure this is it. Can someone double-check for me?

rich_f, thank you for the links
I'm not sure if the second one also includes a DVD with the videos. That's what I'm interested about, mostly. Anyway, I'll keep an eye out!

snap, I wish I was good enough at Japanese to understand all these resources. My handwriting sucks. Does anyone know what I could do in the meantime or, like, an explanation of this stuff in English? <---I know it doesn't make sense, but I'm just wondering because I have a ways to go before I can make use of this kind of thing.

Learn to Write Chinese Characters is an English-language reference that has helped my handwriting.

annabel398 Wrote:Learn to Write Chinese Characters is an English-language reference that has helped my handwriting.

I just took a look at this book and it doesn't really seem to provide more information than most elementary Japanese textbooks. I think that Basic Kanji Book I provided all the advice given in this book.

I own both books (BKB and Learn), and I totally disagree with mystes' assessment. Learn is specifically targeted at producing graceful handwriting with a pen. I think it's probably the best English-language reference easily available for penji, which what Igordesu was asking for. Also, it's square script, not grass script... but one should master square script first, according to just about everyone.

(It probably goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway--if one is at the level of being able to discriminate between Chinese and Japanese penji styles, then you probably don't need this book at all.)

alyks Wrote:That's really cool. The TV teaches you stuff in Japan. You know, here in America, all the TV does is try to scare you into buying stuff.

LOL.

Have you seen the Shamwow commercials yet?

I see it on the rare occasions I watch television with commercials. The guy is so matter-of-fact about the product he might as well be saying "Just buy it you twit."

kazelee Wrote:

alyks Wrote:That's really cool. The TV teaches you stuff in Japan. You know, here in America, all the TV does is try to scare you into buying stuff.

LOL.

Have you seen the Shamwow commercials yet?

I see it on the rare occasions I watch television with commercials. The guy is so matter-of-fact about the product he might as well be saying "Just buy it you twit."

I have. That guy is amazing. I would buy anything from him, along with Billy Mays.

OMGOSH! BILLY MAYS! THAT GUY IS AMAZING! HE'S ON LIKE EVERY OTHER COMMERCIAL! YESSSSSSSSS! I LOVE HIM! LOL...."BILLY MAYS HERE!"

@annabell: do you think I would still be able to make use of the Learn book, seeing as I'm studying Japanese and not Chinese? I know they share characters, so it's probably not that big of a problem. But, I'm just wondering if there would be anything I need to be careful of?

EDIT: btw, maybe this shows my stupidity, laziness, and noob-ness, but whatever: what exactly is penji? I know you talked about distinguishing between square characters and other stuff or whatever? I'm not sure...

@igordesu: you should be able to guess what ペン字 is - it is writing 行書 using a pen instead of a brush. Japanese coin words all the time (especially young people)...

@rich_f: the one you found on amazon.co.jp is pretty good, but I bought this one yesterday from a bookstore - it's probably better because it has brush handwriting 書道 going sideways and the ペン字 in small vertical boxes.

However, it doesn't have the stroke-order like the one you listed, but it does include some common 熟語 - I am thinking about trying RTK1 all over again using these 熟語 and writing in 行書 instead.

So I guess it depends on your needs (ie which book is better).

http://www.amazon.co.jp/書道三体字典―ペン字三体付き-片...727&sr=1-2



Also, you have found the link with the book used in the series. However, I don't think there is a DVD version out - I'm not sure if there will ever be - it's being broadcast daily in Japan right now (for the first time, I think).

lol, I figured as much. So you think "learn to write chinese characters" is my best bet for developing my penji?

Today's lesson focused on how the Kanji is changed so that characters can be written quickly (there are reasons behind the 行書).

In order to write more quickly:

1. Strokes may be omitted: eg 出 becomes 3 strokes instead of 5.
2. The hooks at the end of strokes may be modified in direction so you can quickly move to the next stroke.
3. Strokes may become disconnected: eg in 文, the final 2 strokes (legs) may be disconnected from the horizontal stroke.