Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Big Mac]

I'm partial to writing in cursive handwriting. When I was a kid I went to school in a pretty rural part of Ontario and perhaps we were behind the times by a couple of decades. We had no choice but to write everything in cursive...and I still do today.

So I was a little shocked when I came to Korea. I wrote all my evaluation reports out in cursive and was surprised by the reaction. My director couldn't read it, the parents couldn't read it. It was like I had written it in code or something.

I was even more shocked to find that the other foreign teachers, all of whom went to school in urban Ontario, could read cursive, but didn't know how to write it.

So every once in a while I would throw a couple of words on the board in cursive, just to see the kids react. They would always ask me if I was writing in "Canadian." They loved it and were amazed when I showed them how it was the same alphabet, just a different style.

Some of the kids asked me to write it in their books so they can practice it at home and they picked it up very quickly.

I'm just wondering whether all of you think that cursive handwriting is a relic of the past? Or is it something that we should be teaching the children? I think they should at least know how to read it.

I have read some studies that show that kids who write in cursive are better spellers because they learn to write each word as a unit rather than as independent letters.

[TECO]

I had to learn it in Grade 3 in B.C.

I can't even write anymore, though.

I use the keyboard instead of the pen. It's amazing how uncoordinated I am now with curisive writing. Shocking actually but I guess we tend to forget if we don't use it.

[Son Deureo!]

I brought this up a little while ago, and even did a poll on the subject. Check it out here: http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=37614&highlight=cursive

[Wangja]

In England, we oftensay that "The Sun" is read by those unable to read joined-up writing.

[crazylemongirl]

Some of my students have beautiful cursive writing. Far better than my own which looks like a drunken chicken making its way across the page.

[ajgeddes]

Not to be insulting to anybody, but if I met an English person who didn't know how to write in cursive, I would think they are uneducated idiots. Everybody learns to write (vs. print) when they are in grade 2, 3, or 4. I also learned how to multiply in grade 2, and I still remember how to do that as well.

I write probably about 90% of the time in cursive when I am not in class. It is faster and easier. I have never met a person who said they couldn't do it before. I also teach it to my students and they love it, and most of the girls do have better handwriting than me.

[BigBlackEquus]

[Zenpickle]

I have successfully taught two kindy and a handful of elementary classes to write in cursive. Not only do they love it, but the parents love the novelty of their kids using this "pretty" handwriting. Even better, they all write faster now.

[Faron]

[Zenpickle]

[Faron]

[Njord]

Of course I think that cursive still has some value. After all, some people still write in calligraphy. But that does not mean that it should be taught in school. I was educated in Michigan where we learned cursive in 3rd-5th grade and after that we were allowed to write however we wanted. Most of the students promptly forgot.

It makes me sad thinking about all the time and effort we spent learning cursive. In all that time we could have learned something useful like keyboarding (which I later taught myself) and still had some time left over. In my opinion, cursive properly belongs in art schools or after school clubs for those stuednts who want to learn it. I type over 80% of what I write and my guess is that this is fairly typical. (student evaluations, e-mails, IM, posting on bulletin boards, blogs) Isn't this what we should teach students?

[zappadelta]

OP and others, cursive certainly isn't dead in English speaking countries. But, to expect your director and student's mothers to be able to read it, that's a totally different thing. Can you read it when they write in that KOrean style cursive?

[Demonicat]

I will always prefer print to cursive. Reason being that I am more concerned with the speed that others can read my writing (professional writing, boards, reports, etc), then I am in the speed at which I place it on paper.

[Hollywoodaction]

Only ESL learners and 6 year-old native speakers can be excused from not knowing how to read or write in cursive. Sorry to say it, but you have to be pretty dense if you're an adult who can't read or write in cursive.