this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
588 points (94.1% liked)

Microblog Memes

5863 readers
3569 users here now

A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.

Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.

Rules:

  1. Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
  2. Be nice.
  3. No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
  4. Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.

Related communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I was wrong about what exactly? My facetious point about American and World views on the matter? I still think it was on point despite not being 100% serious.

It's absolutely commonplace in the UK to learn this at an extremely young age and not something that "takes up valuable learning time". It seems weird not to learn it. How about we don't learn how to paint either because most people don't have use for watercolours in their daily life?

I think the fact I'm being down voted by the Americans who don't want to learn cursive is kind of a hilarious confirmation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's no need to learn cursive, it serves no functional purpose that typing cannot match. Other than your signature, which... you have to learn how to do separate to cursive anyway to protect yourself from fraud by making it as unique and as difficult to replicate as possible.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Good luck typing something when you have no electronic device nearby or no power. I know we live in a connected, techno-cebtric world now, but it's wild to think that this simple skill is no longer valued at all by some.

Also, your signature being the thing protecting you from fraud is quite hilarious from a European perspective too!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Since the invention of the smartphone I haven’t been without an electronic device nearby for a single moment. And if by some chance I find myself in this incredibly unlikely scenario, a power outage that’s long enough to outlast my phone battery, and for some reason desperately need to write something down, I could just write it down in print. That is, if I can even find a piece of paper and a writing utensil. I just don’t think the few times over the course of my life that this incredibly unlikely scenario happens, will make it somehow worth it to learn and remember a second form of hand writing when the first will do.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Remember a second form of hand writing? What did they do to you in your schools??

Block letters to me are just the same capital letters I would use for cursive. They are one and the same to me and I don't get how its such a big deal to write fluidly in one pen stroke.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

In America, cursive letters don’t look like block letters. Thats the point of this entire post. Kids can’t read it because it’s almost like learning a second alphabet. If they were one and the same why would anyone have trouble reading it?

In America plenty of people write regular print fluidly in one, or fewer pen strokes. But that’s not the same thing as cursive in America. Cursive is a very specific script of very extravagant, stylized letters.

I was taught to read and write cursive in grade school and now as an adult I literally can’t, because I’ve forgotten.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think you need to look up the word cursive. Whatever traumatised you in school had a name that you didn't learn such as D'Nealian Script. Cursive is the all encompassing word for flowing joined up script.

I have a hard time comprehending why anyone would have trouble reading it in the first place.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It’s Zaner-Bloser script, and that is what Americans are referring to when they say cursive. We have joined-up script here but we don’t call it cursive, even if technically speaking, it is. And it isn’t traumatizing, it’s just a pointless waste of time, and nobody wants to actively waste their time when they could be doing something of value instead.

It’s not hard to comprehend why people can’t read it, half of the letters don’t even resemble their print counterparts. You’d have to learn the cursive alphabet the same way you had to learn the print alphabet. If you don’t do that, you wouldn’t be able to read it, especially if somebody’s handwriting isn’t incredibly clean and clear.