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Writing Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 45 24 January 2010 at 7:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I remember at the beginning of my Russian studies, I was always wondering about how Russians really write. My book told me that only the cursive was used (and I cannot write in cursive for my life in English). My question is, do many Russians write in block form? Would it seem weird or out of place to do so in modern day Russia, or anywhere else where Russian is spoken?
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| Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5566 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 2 of 45 24 January 2010 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I spent 7 years in Ukraine, and i have never seen anyone writing in block form, they all write in cursive which is very hard indeed esp to read it, but with time you will get used to it.
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| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 3 of 45 24 January 2010 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
That is exactly my experience from Russia, but some Russians on a similar thread all claimed that cursive was never used. Very strange. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6330 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 4 of 45 24 January 2010 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
Strange indeed. Except for young children and immigrants from the SNG, I never saw russian written in block form. Can you find the thread? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 5 of 45 24 January 2010 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I studied Russian in school for a while, and the teacher was very clear that it was ABSOLUTELY necessary and completely compulsory to learn the cursive Cyrillic handwriting. He was Estonian and had learnt it from a young age in school. Many of the students objected to handing in page after page with exercises until it was perfect. But the teacher said it was the top priority and that we could not start the studies properly until everyone had mastered it. It was not hard although I had forgotten a lot of it between then and taking up my studies again.
Just buy a kids exercise book or download some sheets. Believe me this is the easiest thing about Russian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5435 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 6 of 45 24 January 2010 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Handwriting is what I do most of the time with Russian. I think it is essential to learn the proper handwriting, because it just flows once you're used to it. I wouldn't want to write д manually. The Assimil course introduces you to handwriting from the first chapter. It might be one of the few drawbacks of self-teaching that people think they can do without it. You're hampering yourself if you avoid proper handwriting. It is true, though, that it can be hard to distinguish some letters, especially ш and т (which is written m in handwriting). They both tend to end up as a sequence of up and down strokes. Some people put a bar above the т and a bar under the ш to make the difference clear. With л and м you should not forget the tiny upwards bump at the beginning, otherwise they may blur to some soup with ш and т.
It's really not that hard. You have to fight dragons of different breeds when learning Russian: tons of irregularities with conjugations and declensions along with unpredictable changes of stress even in the "regular" forms, verbs of motion, perfective and imperfective aspects of verbs, long and short forms of adjectives, a whole zoo of participles, ... These are the real challenges, and they make Cyrillic handwriting look easy. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5464 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 7 of 45 24 January 2010 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is one of those cases where self-study puts you at a disadvantage. Practicing your handwriting on your own at home would I'm sure be tiresome and frustrating, whereas in a class, if the teacher makes you write exercises in handwritten Russian, you have no choice but to learn how.
I haven't actually written any Russian for many years, but I remember how pleasurable and satisfying it is to do so. It's certainly worth taking the time out to learn, even though it may feel unnecessary and time-consuming. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5448 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 8 of 45 25 January 2010 at 1:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Alright then, I should learn it... Hopefully writing cursive Cyrillic is easier than learning to read Arabic, which I did in a day or two.
By the way, is cursive Cyrillic only used in Russian, or in all languages that use Cyrillic? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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