I have a question about whether some lines in kanji should be written in one exact way if you’re a beginner. I tend to allow myself certain liberties (inspired by some cool-looking computer fonts), such as:
the top lil’ stroke of, say, 六 doesn’t touch the long horizontal line, and is also at a slight left angle. This applies to all kanji with this little stroke, such as 方、食、字、広、etc.
the two horizontal lines in 見 that are in the middle almost reach but don’t quite touch the right side of the character; same for 白、百、貝、日、月、etc.
if the character has lines crossing each other at a 90-degree angle, such as 田、男、町、車、the horizontal line doesn’t touch either the left or the right side and is sorta in the middle.
My Japanese teacher (she’s Japanese) says I shouldn’t be doing that because if I ever take an exam, I’ll be losing points. Can anyone with experience confirm whether this is true?..
I’m trying to copy the writing style from here – not to a tee, of course, but the general character proportions and stroke lengths/positions.
I think that depends on your goals. If you want to do calligraphy – then you certainly have to know and strictly follow the stroke order. If you want to pass JLPT with good marks – then I’m not sure; as @Vanilla さん pointed out, better ask @Leebo 先輩。
But if you just want to be able to read and write – you can write kanji however you want, as long as they are legible. I’m sure your teacher would be horrified by my handwriting, but I’m also sure she’d be able to understand it. Which is exactly my goal. Actually, no – in fact, my main goal is being able to read Japanese, being able to write – is just a nice bonus
Hmm, not sure whether I want to do calligraphy – this sounds too scary and my handwriting in other languages is basically chicken scratch – but I suppose what I want can best be summarised as ‘This one Japanese person picks up a sheet of paper with my handwriting and goes, “Oh, this looks cool, I like it!”’
So I’m trying to balance this goal with possible exams in the future and understand how much I can get away with… And how not to form bad habits by copying computer fonts. Basically, whether I should stop doing what I’m doing haha
My kanji are legible, the teacher says she can easily read them and she likes how they look, but that my liberties may later backfire. Wondering if she’s right!..
Oh! Can you elaborate, please?.. Are there kanji tests that I’m going to fail if I write the way I do? Or do Japanese people view this type of handwriting as weird?
I’m a Chinese learner who practices calligraphy as a hobby. The same principles apply to writing Japanese kanji. There are multiple styles of calligraphy and also print fonts. As a beginner, the most important thing is to learn the correct stroke order as it helps you transition between different styles (reading and writing). When you find a style you like, you can mimic. The writing style you shared looks very standard and legible. The only problem with it is it’s more of calligraphy brush style. If you’re writing with pen or pencil on an exam, it will be hard to mimic.
I am not aware of a Japanese test for foreigners that includes writing and judging thereof.
Japanese schoolchildren get points docked for sure.
I’d say, you will get a similar reaction (they might hide it though) from every Japanese person that looks at your writing. Whether it matters, depends on the situation, I guess.
It’s hard for me to imagine what you mean without actually seeing the kanji you wrote. If your teacher found it strange or distracting, perhaps it’s worth taking your teacher’s advice, but it would help to see examples for us to give opinions.
Also, just for the record, I do 100% trust my teacher, me asking for other perspectives here is not me doubting her judgement but rather simple curiosity. If this style is basically my take on the font provided by the site whose main aim is teaching kanji (kakimashou.com), is it a bad idea to use it?.. I now understand that it’s a calligraphy brush style, but I somehow thought I could take bits and pieces that I liked from it haha
At the end of the day, I realise I should just learn to write with a basic style first and then add embellishments much later if I feel like it (and when I earn that right, in a sense). It’s a shame though that Wanikani doesn’t teach handwriting!
Hmm… Makes sense, thank you!
I wonder if I can at least make 田 and other similar square kanji a bit narrower at the bottom than at the top since it looks nicer. I’ve seen that in many handwriting examples.
The other replies cover all you need but as someone who’s been actively practicing calligraphy side-by-side with the rest of my Japanese studies I want to react to this:
Note that computer fonts have different conventions than the handwritten stuff. It’s the same with the latin alphabet I think, few people would handrwrite ‘a’ like this instead of something more like ‘α’ (at least in my country, maybe it varies).
If you take 糸 for instance, in many “standard” fonts it’ll look like it has 8 strokes instead of 6. 備 or 令 usually look pretty different too, to give some examples:
Whether you think this matters or not is of course very subjective, but if you’re going to study calligraphy specifically I think it’s probably worth doing it right, it’s not much more work to look up proper stroke order.
Thank you for such a detailed reply, much appreciated! I always look up the stroke order, and the site that I use shows it with the exact font that you posted, and then on the left you see the same kanji but written in a stunning calligraphy brush style, where some strokes are notably different, but the whole thing just looks a lot nicer, so I just… I suppose my ancient monke brain said ‘pretty = gud’ and I started copying it lol
Virtually every single stroke order diagram you’ll see on non-Japanese websites comes from kanjivg, that’s why they all look the same.
Not really sure what that would be then, but I definitely get you on the “pretty = gud” aspect.
According to my Anki stats I have done 34,666 kanji reviews over the past few years, usually writing each kanji multiple time during reviews, so by now I have developed my own cursive style at least for some common components. Here are a couple of examples side-by-side (left is my “cursive style” and the right side is me using textbook strokes):
But note that this is less for esthetic reasons and more in order to write faster. I didn’t really force myself to do it this way, it’s just that if you write the same shape thousands of time you’ll naturally start taking shortcuts.
If you just want to draw some cool kanji for artistic purposes, then have fun and don’t overthink it. If you want to actually learn to handwrite Japanese then I recommend not focusing on looking good per se but more on stroke order, stroke style as well as overall kanji proportions and spacing first and foremost. The rest will eventually follow with enough practice.
I didn’t see that you posted examples. Your handwriting looks very stylized but that’s neither good nor bad IMO. It’s perfectly legible at least. It definitely does not look like the way a Japanese person would typically write, it’s too sharp and computer-like. But again, depending on your objectives that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
You can open basically any manga to get examples of actual handwritten Japanese from Japanese authors:
kanji reviews over the past few years, usually writing each kanji multiple time during reviews, so by now I have developed my own cursive style at least for some common components. Here are a couple of examples side-by-side (left is my “cursive style” and the right side is me using textbook strokes):
