Thread: How often is Russian script used?

I spend a good amount of time visiting local russian stores; knowing cursive/script is very handy. A lot of times shops have hand written signs, and a fair amount of food products use "fancy" lettering that can be a mix of print and script...

Unfortunately, you will have to learn to at least read Russian cursive because a lot of stuff will be written that way, at least occasionally, where ever you go and what ever you read, billboards advertising, textbooks, newspapers, novels, etc.. The cause, I put down to Russian inefficiency. In Russian schools they teach kids to read block letters in text books but at the same time write in cursive by hand from day one, instead of teaching kids to read first, and then later on teach them to write cursive when they have already managed to write in print as they do in most English speaking countries. (Except in Amerika where they are sometimes forgetting to teach cursive at all!!!)Therefore, as adults in Russia, there can be much confusion in understanding what someone has written on legal forms and medical records or anything at all really, especially if someone has messy handwriting in script.

Written and recorded by DDT & Possum: over and out: end of transmission

In Russian schools they teach kids to read block letters in text books but at the same time write in cursive by hand from day one, instead of teaching kids to read first, and then later on teach them to write cursive when they have already managed to write in print as they do in most English speaking countries.

Nonsense, if you ask me. I don't see any sense in that system.
Moreover, Russian kids usually don't have problems with learning English cursive at school (exactly because they are used to writing in cursive), while englishs-peaking adults keep complaining how hard it is to learn. So I'd say Russian system of writing in cursive "from day one" beats you "block-letters" system easily.

PS. Many kids who come to school already know how to read and write in block letters anyway, so it doesn't matter. Also I can write in cursive since I was five and it didn't make my handwriting any messier.

while englishs-peaking adults keep complaining how hard it is to learn.

Not how hard it is to learn but how hard it is to write neatly and read. Even Russians can't read it half the time!

Learning Russian cursive is just as important as learning English cursive. Without being able to read it you won't understand signs, teacher notes on the blackboard, or handwritten letters and cards from friends. Also printing is very slow, you'll take faster notes if you can write in cursive. It's easy to learn if you just buy a childrens' penmanship textbook or notebook. Get the kind that has the arrows on the lines of each letter, showing how to make the strokes. Take tracing paper (onionskin paper) and practice tracing over the letters. You'll be writing in no time!