Yamasa online dictionary - shorthand kanji

Index » RtK Volume 1

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Reply #1 - 2012 August 10, 11:54 pm
zatarra Member
From: Wisconsin Registered: 2011-12-22 Posts: 26

When I look up kanji on Yamasa, there are 3 pictures one shows the kanji in print as you would find a in a book, then there's another demonstrating the stroke order, then the last one is a sloppy version of the kanji, that I guess maybe would be typical of how a Japanese would write the kanji if they were taking notes, writing really fast, etc.  Should I be imitating the sloppy versions since that is actually how people write them?  I find some of the sloppy versions of the kanji are too different from the original kanji.

Reply #2 - 2012 August 11, 12:02 am
quincy Member
Registered: 2008-08-22 Posts: 257

focus on the correct way to write it. If you have to write a lot by hand (unlikely) you'll naturally adopt the sloppy patterns.

Reply #3 - 2012 August 11, 12:09 am
zatarra Member
From: Wisconsin Registered: 2011-12-22 Posts: 26

Yeah, that's what I thought, but I thought it might be important to be aware of the shortcuts you can take to write the kanji.  Some of the kanji that are written with several strokes are reduced to a single stroke.  I tend to follow stroke orders very closely and actually lift my pencil for each new stroke.  Maybe I'm being too careful and this will prevent me from writing faster and more naturally.

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Reply #4 - 2012 August 11, 12:21 am
yudantaiteki Member
Registered: 2009-10-03 Posts: 3619

quincy wrote:

If you have to write a lot by hand (unlikely) you'll naturally adopt the sloppy patterns.

Actually this isn't true.  I've done a large amount of handwriting in my research (almost all copying from books) and I've developed abbreviated ways of writing but I've been told they don't look like what a native Japanese would do.  Since most of the handwriting I do is for myself, I haven't really made much effort to fix this.

As for the OP, you definitely need to learn to write the "standard" forms before trying to concern yourself with abbreviated forms, though.

Reply #5 - 2012 August 11, 12:46 am
zatarra Member
From: Wisconsin Registered: 2011-12-22 Posts: 26

Thanks.  I'll just focus on the standard writing of kanji.  I'm only in the beginning stages; learning abbreviated versions of the kanji is still far ahead of me.

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