Comments on: How Japanese Went From Illegible To Legible In 100 Years

By: Koichinist

Koichinist — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:33:00 +0000

We need a koichigana.

By: Emily

Emily — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 10:55:00 +0000

I keep staring at the pictures like I’ll be able to decipher the kanji just by looking at them….

By: カイエン

カイエン — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:27:00 +0000

I read that hentaigana Wikipedia page you link a whole ago.

Hentaigana is more than just differently written hiragana characters. When the system of using a character for its pronunciation rather than meaning started, there was a handful of different characters with the same reading that could be used for any syllable. And then on top of that is the super cursivization you write about. But the main thing that makes hentaigana different from their standard equivalents is that they are often based on different kanji.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:12:00 +0000

I am a huge advocite for learning cursive (mostly because I spent over 6 years of my life learning the stuff and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to get some work out of it or make my future children suffer the same fate).
I can understand streamlining public writing, just like not everyone can read cursive (I still have trouble), so books or things like that should have some level of standard.
Handwriting is very useful for revealing certain traits; patience, attention to detail, general personality (hyper, quiet, etc.) My handwriting is a combination of cursive and print, I press with medium pressure (a fairly level personality) and blurr words together or write too fast and it looks sloppy (lack of patience and attention to detail).

By: Catherine Ling

Catherine Ling — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:59:00 +0000

I’m sorry but I see it as beautiful calligraphy!

By: Hashi

Hashi — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:43:00 +0000

Why isn’t Ruby a good substitute?