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@skyblond do you know if there is some sort of asian language short hand? If not chinese any of the languages that use kanji like charachers (single characters to represent words). Im curious about forms of shorthand that migbt be applied to such scripts.
in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

If I'm not misunderstanding, there is some sort of short hand in Chinese, but mostly for professional usage, like clerk, but nowadays we almost exclusively use computer and use PinYin to type Chinese charactors, I can achive about 90 to 100 wpm (or cpm, c for character).

Here is a picture I found on the internet, it shows the markers for some character.

I think the doctor still use that kind of shorthands? I can never read those.

Unknown parent

@m
As someone ignorant on the subject that sounds like longer-hand from kanji and not a shorthand at all.

Obviously compared to latin letters it might seem like short hand. But relative to true kanji what you describe sounds like more strokes, not less.

Unknown parent

天空вℓσи∂

@m

I think you mean PinYin. For example you can represent a word like 我们 (means `we`) as wo3men2, but 我门 (means `my door`) is also pronounced as wo3men2. That will be tricky if you write something like wo3men2huai4le, it can be either 我们坏了 (means we are badass), or 我门坏了 (meaning my door is broken). And that's why early pinyin input method is a nightmare to use, because it often suggest unrelated candidate. Now with smarter software, the input method is more likely to suggest the later option instead of saying you're badass.

@freemo

Unknown parent

天空вℓσи∂

@m

Oh, that's called ZhuYin, it's before RPC government decide to reform and simplify Chinese to make it easier to learn. It's a little bit easier than Pinyin, but still need at least 2 part to represent a pronunciation

@freemo

in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

It is probably as short as can be.

Not likely to compress more information into less pen strokes.

in reply to SpaceLifeForm

@SpaceLifeForm
In handwriting, as myself never learnt how to do shorthand, I do have my way to write, mainly keep the pen stay on paper (aka reduce strokes). But sometimes I can't read what I write, so that's the downside.
in reply to 天空вℓσи∂

The way you describe it, it sounds like a cursive form of kanji. Which is cool in its own right.

Im a calligrapher as a hobby and while my girlfriends language doesnt have kanji it is asian. So ive been enjoying learning more about the languages from the region.

@SpaceLifeForm

in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

Just a simple demo to show how I normally write. The standard one is shown on the left side, they are 7, 5 and 8 strokes. And the left side is how I write those, the first one is 2 strokes because there is a separate dot there. The rest are 1 stroke.

A fun fact: In school teacher will not allow you to write like this.I was being criticized a lot when I was in school.

And because school don't allow and of course won't teach you how to write like this, almost everyone will develop their own way to write. So when talking about handwriting, unless it's intentionally write for others, it's hard to read other people's handwriting.

And I think I won't say it's cursive. The real cursive is much beautiful than this :)

@SpaceLifeForm

in reply to 天空вℓσи∂

So in school youd have to learn the form on the left which is more "correct" but also less practical i guess?

In school you use pencils and pens? The older style of using brushes isnt very common for everyday writing i take it? With a brush i guess its more like calligraphy.

@SpaceLifeForm

in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

in reply to 天空вℓσи∂

Why woukd the order of strokes matter? Doesnt it look the same regardless of what order you execute the strokes in? Thanks this is all very interesting to me.

@SpaceLifeForm

in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

@SpaceLifeForm

I don't know, I didn't fully get the idea of stroke order. But from top to bottom and left to right does help shape your character.
----

It's a hard question since I never thought about it. Some anwser suggest it's part of the standard. Eventually you will write the same character no matter how you write it, but to resolve any ambiguity, there has to be a standard way to write. And some suggest the correct stroke order can help you learn cursive.

in reply to 天空вℓσи∂

Correct me if im wrong but chinese culture has a very strong aspect of conformity to it. So i suppose that is reflected even in how you are taught to write.

@SpaceLifeForm

in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

@SpaceLifeForm

Maybe? I actually don't know. But I found some (most?) order are actually matches very well on how I developed my own writing style. If the orders are right, they can be combined to 1 stroke and won't looks mess. But some are not that intuitive (actually I'll call them counterintuitive).

Also, a friend of mine just send this video to me: bilibili.com/video/BV1Mb4y1P75…

It's a Chinese lecture talking about Chinese shorthand, hosted on Chinese website, so good luck :)

in reply to 天空вℓσи∂

What i find interesting is in english there are hubdreds of different scripts to represent the same words. There is no standard form of writing. But in chinese seems much more standardized, all the way down to the stroke order.

@SpaceLifeForm

in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

in reply to eshep

@eshep

Thanks so much. That lines up roughly wish some of my speculation. Much appreciate the culture sharing :)

@skyblond @SpaceLifeForm

in reply to 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

Happy to help! I enjoy trying to understand how languages are constructed. The history and evolution of it is the only part I truly find enjoyable though. 😀
in reply to eshep

@eshep @SpaceLifeForm I think latin letters are similar; imagine writing letters like "r" from top right to bottom left: it would be slower, because your pencil would move more. Also, it would look a bit different, so your hurriedly-scribbled r would look different from everyone else's, and it would be harder to read. This is why kids learning to write in the latin alphabet get training on stroke ordering as well. I mean, sure: you *could* get it looking fine, just like one could write a perfect-looking "法書" with the wrong order, but it would still have those disadvantages.
in reply to Erik Haugen

Good point, thanks! It didn't even occur to me, but I guess most any written language would have a stroke order that ""should"" be followed; some assuredly less forgiving of it than others. And I'd assume they all wound up at that order from a similar natural reasoning.
in reply to 天空вℓσи∂

Some very old and highly prized Japanese writings look as if they were written in 1~2 strokes quite similar to this. 😆