Thread: Russian handwriting - feedback and examples wanted!

Здравствуйте!

I'd appreciate it if you could check out my russian handwriting and offer feedback. Are there any bad habits that I need to break asap? Does it look strange or normal? You can also see a little bit of my latin script in the title, if you want to compare.

Also, I'd be very interested to see other examples of handwritten Russian, particuarly if you are a native (although I'd love to see other non-native's writing too). I've never shown anyone my Russian cursive before, and I've never seen anyone else's so it'd be great to share!

I love seeing examples of peoples handwriting.

Remember the top reason for learning Russian according to "my" poll on MasterRussian

"Russian´sounds cool and I like Cyrillic letters"

I got fairly good marks for handwriting. But it took several times for my teacher to correct.

All of the examples looked much prettier than my handwriting By the way - in case anyone is interested, in addition to occasionally butchering the Russian language, I can also do handwriting analysis if anyone is interested. The writing samples can be in Russian or English. Either way, you are writing directly from your brain and it can reveal a great deal about your personality.

Feel free to test my knowledge on this It is a lot of fun.

There is one letter which I always have a difficult time with: ж

Can someone please tell me the exact sequence of how to write this character, when and where the pen should be lifted from the page as it is written?

Thanks.

K

Originally Posted by kerygma

There is one letter which I always have a difficult time with: ж

Can someone please tell me the exact sequence of how to write this character, when and where the pen should be lifted from the page as it is written?

You shouldn't lift a pen
it's supposed to be written with one stroke but it's hard, so you can cheat with lifting, the letter consists of three parts, click on the image to see
j.jpg

Here is Russian прописи in 4 parts - http://naotlichno.info/2011/05/propi...-4-x-chastyax/
The image has been taken from part 4
Прописи is the most helpful way to learn Russian handwriting

Originally Posted by Doomer

You shouldn't lift a pen

it's supposed to be written with one stroke but it's hard, so you can cheat with lifting, the letter consists of three parts, click on the image to see

Just a correction: "You shouldn't lift THE pen. Gosh, this definite article is so hard for Russians, isn't it! I absolutely can't explain why it should be "the" and not "a".

Anyway, there are some Russian letters that don't connect well with the letters following it. Like "б" for example. So it is not possible write completely "flowing" in Russian.

But the average Russian person has excellent handwriting - Judging from the examples here, they must be excellent at teaching penmanship in Russian schools!

Originally Posted by Hanna

it's supposed to be written with one stroke but it's hard, so you can cheat with lifting, the letter consists of three parts, click on the image to see

Just a correction: "You shouldn't lift THE pen. Gosh, this definite article is so hard for Russians, isn't it! I absolutely can't explain why it should be "the" and not "a".

Thank you for the correction
I understand my mistake but only because I heard examples not because I know this exact rule, which is bad. Does anybody know the rule?

Originally Posted by Hanna

But the average Russian person has excellent handwriting - Judging from the examples here, they must be excellent at teaching penmanship in Russian schools!

Yeah, handwriting becomes bad in universities

Another question I have for you who are Russian: I am left-handed, and I'm wondering whether Russian educational systems allow their students to write left-handed, or do they try to make them write with their right hands. I am sure that nowadays no one is forced to write with his right hand.

K

In USSR it was "strongly suggested" to students in elementary schools to use right hand only
The idea comes from the way classes were built, windows in classes were always located on the left side of the rooms. Thus left-handed people would cover light with their hands while writing which is bad for vision and carriage

My handwriting in both English and Russian are terrible, I think. More than anything it's erratic--my letters end up looking differently sometimes, even within the same words.


Some things my Russian teacher hated me for:
* Sometimes my о looks like an а (like the first o in молчи).
* Sometimes I tend to leave out the connecting tic (before л and м).
* No lines over ш and т.
* Uneven height of letters.
* Sometimes I write letters that are similar but not exactly the same as Latin letters as the Latin letter instead of the Cyrillic one (e.g. capital В).
* Sometimes I don't accentuate the loop in е and я to where it's even visible (the e in мечты or звезды).
* I often don't close my a's and o's all the way (а in скрывайся, пускай (this is definitely bad, looks like an и now that I think about it), etc).

This was my writing quickly, though. I could probably get it a little neater if I took my time.

My English cursive is dreadful. I wrote down an English translation of the poem (this isn't even as fast/messy as when I'm taking notes, mind you):



These look so thick because they're so blown up--another thing people who read my writing hate me for is that I write very small.

Sometimes I write letters that are similar but not exactly the same as Latin letters as the Latin letter instead of the Cyrillic one (e.g. capital В).

I don't see a problem with this. For example, the Latin B versus the Cyrillic B -- the differences are negligible. Also the letters A and C.

K

In old books of Russian grammar the character д is often written as ∂. In more recent texts, it is written as g. Are both symbols still used in Russian cursive?

K

Originally Posted by kerygma

In old books of Russian grammar the character д is often written as ∂. In more recent texts, it is written as g. Are both symbols still used in Russian cursive?

Yes, both symbols are still used. Originally "Д" was only used as capital, and lower-case variant was "∂". But nowadays "д" is used more. Handwritten variant:
Untitled.png

Originally Posted by kerygma

In old books of Russian grammar the character д is often written as ∂. In more recent texts, it is written as g. Are both symbols still used in Russian cursive?

The second is most common in modern handwriting