Is there any website that lists the simplifications Japanese use when they write japanese text fast? I've been searchin for such a website for two hours now...

If you search for the kanji at the site below, the rightmost image is shorthand I believe:

Yamasa

Oh wow. The right-hand images from that would be an awesome study material. I wonder if they have a way to download them all?

FYI, it looks like the images are stored like so:

/226898520BF6CEAC49256A90002EC42B/$FILE/1604_hw.gif
/4F9DAA5228B2D1C249256A90002EBE41/$FILE/409_hw.gif

/<some random folder>/$FILE/<classic nelson dic #>_hw.gif

I think the random folder name would probably make it tough to just grab them all though.

Doesn't it vary by person unless you're specifically writing in a particular form? Seems like the former occurs most often, no? I write Japanese very fast and naturally, from practice during reviews. It's not as neat as when I take my time, but it's easily legible unless I'm writing super fast, same as with my fast English handwriting.

Thank you!!!!, that was exactly what I was looking for. Does sb. know a page like that for hiragana, too?

Click 'Kana' top right of that page

Just as you would with playing a musical instrument. Start by practicing ultra slowly. Perfect each note/stroke, make sure the composition is perfect (follow the middle one, not the one on the right). If you follow the middle character which is by far the best reference on the internet.

You won't be able to learn shit from the right character.

So yes in summary, practice slowly, be patient and you'll get there with time.

liosama Wrote:You won't be able to learn shit from the right character.

It might help with reading old people´s handwriting.

hereticalrants Wrote:

liosama Wrote:You won't be able to learn shit from the right character.

It might help with reading old people´s handwriting.

And other stylistic writing. Anytime a kanji isn't a computer font, I can't read it. I'd like to see how things get stylized in a sane way and eventually learn to read art and other hand-written things.

abarone22 Wrote:FYI, it looks like the images are stored like so:

/226898520BF6CEAC49256A90002EC42B/$FILE/1604_hw.gif
/4F9DAA5228B2D1C249256A90002EBE41/$FILE/409_hw.gif

/<some random folder>/$FILE/<classic nelson dic #>_hw.gif

I think the random folder name would probably make it tough to just grab them all though.

Here's a link to a script I created some time ago that downloads the ones from RTK Vol. 1 and saves them in files with their Heisig index. It should work on any system that has a wget command.

http://drop.io/pdei66c#
The script is in getHW.zip. rtk1_gifs.zip has the images themselves and an html page that shows them in Heisig order.

I feel like I'm wondering what they're getting at with those images on the right. It's like they're stuck in some limbo between formal handwriting and shorthand characters, in a style that nobody would ever use.

Like with this character, the 口 parts are in an abbreviated style, but then the first four strokes in the 言 radical are flat tidy lines.
And then this character, and its relatives. Nobody abbreviates 門 like that.

JimmySeal Wrote:And then this character, and its relatives. Nobody abbreviates 門 like that.

Except for the left hand side, that´s exactly how it looks when I write that character in a hurry.

JimmySeal Wrote:I feel like I'm wondering what they're getting at with those images on the right. It's like they're stuck in some limbo between formal handwriting and shorthand characters, in a style that nobody would ever use.

It is used, I checked against some notes I got from a teacher at school (会　負　 I can't read most of it :$ ) and it's nearly the same. It's just the kanji written in the correct stroke order but quickly. Everyone has different handwriting tho so it's just 1 example.

I think it's best to learn the correct way and then with time the shortcuts come naturally.

This is a good resource for writing kanji properly to begin with:
http://www.geocities.jp/ki07ji/muryo/muryo.html

caivano Wrote:This is a good resource for writing kanji properly to begin with:
http://www.geocities.jp/ki07ji/muryo/muryo.html

Interesting. They shut down the US Geocities, but the Japanese one still exists...

As for the characters. They kinda look like what I write, when I write quickly. I think as long as you maintain the correct stroke order you can write as fast as you like.

georgative Wrote:

caivano Wrote:This is a good resource for writing kanji properly to begin with:
http://www.geocities.jp/ki07ji/muryo/muryo.html

Interesting. They shut down the US Geocities, but the Japanese one still exists...

As for the characters. They kinda look like what I write, when I write quickly. I think as long as you maintain the correct stroke order you can write as fast as you like.

I think the OP's point was that Japanese often -don't- maintain correct stroke order when they write quickly. He wanted a resource that helps him learn to read and write the same shorthand way that native speakers do.

I've seen references to this before, but since I was -so- far from being able to deal with it, I didn't pay much attention.

Montrealer Wrote:Here's a link to a script I created some time ago that downloads the ones from RTK Vol. 1 and saves them in files with their Heisig index.

Thanks for posting this!

I'm curious about how you generated this script (clearly, you did not write each line of it one-by-one). Specifically, how did you get all the random-looking directory names?

gfb345 Wrote:Thanks for posting this!

I'm curious about how you generated this script (clearly, you did not write each line of it one-by-one). Specifically, how did you get all the random-looking directory names?

I don't have the original (meta)script, but I think it was something like this:
1. I started with a list of the kanji in Heisig order.
2. For each kanji in the list,
2a. I downloaded the web page http://www.yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjid...enDocument , with the 哀 replaced with the current kanji
2b. Then I searched for the name of the handwriting image file, which meant looking for the string src=.*_hw.gif.
2c. Once that was done, I stripped off the src= prefix and replaced it with the base, which was http://www.yamasa.cc/.
2d. I knew the Heisig index of the character I was working with, so it was straightforward to output the wget command.

Hope this helps.

@Montrealer, cool, thanks!