So I've been wondering about this for a little while.

Do the Japanese use college ruled or wide ruled paper? Or do they use their own size?

I ask this because I find it really hard to fit some kanji in between the lines on college ruled paper. For example: admonish 警

Anyone else have this problem?

Just curious.

Genkou Youshi.

I used to write characters out quite big and it looked quite ok, and then sometimes when I had to fill out a form for example they don't give you that much space (think forms at the bank) and I had to cram everything in a space less than a centimeter high and it looked butt ugly. I think it's better to practise writing smaller since it makes writing bigger easier than the other way around hehe. Trying to fit 警 is fun, 襲 is even more fun

When I was a kid my mom and I would have competitions where we'd see who could draw the character with the most strokes the smallest, and still have it legible. I always beat her by writing 鬱 I had smaller hands so maybe it's cheating.

It's mostly wide-ruled. Even in the US, though, I think college-ruled has kind of gone out of fashion.

Aijin Wrote:鬱

What character?! I only see a black square!

One of these days I think I'll try to write that one 84-stroke character in a single line. Or at the least one of the 60 stroke characters.

Aijin Wrote:When I was a kid my mom and I would have competitions where we'd see who could draw the character with the most strokes the smallest, and still have it legible. I always beat her by writing 鬱 I had smaller hands so maybe it's cheating.

Somebody was bullied by the other school girls

Because I played games with my mom or because I picked that character? It was the most complex one I knew when I was a kiddo. I wasn't very erudite when it came to the overly complex and obscure characters until I came here and had random American kids asking me what was the 'biggest' one. I didn't know, but now I can proudly say I've memorized all the 40+ stroke characters just for when foreigners ask me that question

Do they have a National Kanji Spelling Bee in Japan for kids?

Squintox Wrote:Genkou Youshi.

Which is not commonly used in notebooks and such for notetaking...

bodhisamaya Wrote:Do they have a National Kanji Spelling Bee in Japan for kids?

I've never heard of a spelling bee occurring anywhere other than in America. In any case Japanese is a lot easier to correctly "spell" than English. It would be like having a counting bee.

If you meant challenging people to write kanji.. I think standardized tests like kanji kentei fill that role.

Aijin Wrote:One of these days I think I'll try to write that one 84-stroke character in a single line. Or at the least one of the 60 stroke characters.

Yeah, I'd say Taito is a great kanji to use for training since it has such in insane amount of strokes yet is really simple in its structure. I think it would be quite easy to learn how to draw it well and quickly compared to other complex kanji.

Yea, a national competition for writing kanji like we have for spelling here. I used to watch a game show called "Challengers of Fire" where writing kanji was one of the challenges. The most knowledgeable contestant won 百万円.

How am I supposed to write the kanji in Jarvik7's avatar in a single line? I don't think it's humanly possible!

Tobberoth Wrote:

Aijin Wrote:One of these days I think I'll try to write that one 84-stroke character in a single line. Or at the least one of the 60 stroke characters.

Yeah, I'd say Taito is a great kanji to use for training since it has such in insane amount of strokes yet is really simple in its structure. I think it would be quite easy to learn how to draw it well and quickly compared to other complex kanji.

Oh, it's very easy to write since it's so repetitive. But then again every character in the high 30s-40+ strokes is usually just one character written three/four times.

I'm not sure what the most complicated non-repetitive character is...I am not sure if there's a list of every character by stroke number online. I'm kinda curious so I think I might check if I go to Berkeley over the summer.

Aijin Wrote:Oh, it's very easy to write since it's so repetitive. But then again every character in the high 30s-40+ strokes is usually just one character written three/four times.

I'm not sure what the most complicated non-repetitive character is...I am not sure if there's a list of every character by stroke number online. I'm kinda curious so I think I might check if I go to Berkeley over the summer.

I guess 龗 is one of the most complicated, non-recursive kanji.

They do have different sizes.... Look at the 大学ノート section here:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8E%E...3%E3%82%AF

Of the notebooks I have lying around in my apartment, I seem to have more B罫 (6mm) than A罫(7mm)... I forget exactly where this falls in with wide rule vs. college rule.. but I think 7mm is close to college rule... where as 6mm is narrow rule? I forget.

so I guess I'll just continue in this thread with another question...

Sometimes I see people writing kanji, hiragana, katakana taking up two lines instead of one. is this normal (as in ho it's suppsed to be done)? or do most people write on one line?

I use a maths book like I used In high school... you know the one with the small squares? I figure If I do one character per square it helps me to size everything evenly... i've gotta say it works really well even though I thought it'd be too small at first. Turns out it's quite possible to write characters that size and still be legible.

Downloadable 原稿用紙!

http://www.bungeisha.co.jp/publishing/download/

Thanks for the download link for that.

mezbup Wrote:I use a maths book like I used In high school... you know the one with the small squares? I figure If I do one character per square it helps me to size everything evenly... i've gotta say it works really well even though I thought it'd be too small at first. Turns out it's quite possible to write characters that size and still be legible.

Graph paper, I assume. I used to do the same, using one square per character. Then my roommate (American, but his parents are from Taiwan) sees it one day and says something to the effect of "Huh? No one writes that small! Use 4 squares (2x2) at least!"

These days I just use whatever's available though, and tend to write bigger. ^_^