I want to start today's dive with a little poll. I want to ask, how do you write the letter 'z'? Observing how people write this letter, I cannot help but to dig into why three such forms predominantly exist in our handwriting. Personally, I write my z's like 𝔷, while many others I know … Continue reading How do you write this letter?
handwriting
The Language Closet turns 8!
I am not going to lie, 2016 does not feel like 8 years ago, although realistically, it is. Reflecting back on the past year, we have touched on many different topics, ranging from writing systems, to more investigative pieces focusing on certain aspects of language or linguistics. These topics have been driven by an unstoppable … Continue reading The Language Closet turns 8!
The handwriting that schools banned
While trawling the Internet for interesting phenomena in any topics in language and writing, I came across this post that was spread around various pages. This one talked about the time when a certain handwriting was banned in schools across Japan. The reason for the banning was it being "too illegible". In fact, some sites … Continue reading The handwriting that schools banned
Why did we learn cursive?
If you grew up in the 20th century, or heck, even into the early 2000s, and you are a speaker of English, you might have gone through the ordeal of learning penmanship, and most particularly, the cursive script, at some point in either preschool, primary school, or elementary school depending on your education system. For … Continue reading Why did we learn cursive?