No idea why my message that you were able to quote doesn’t show up here, but does in a totally unrelated thread, but here’s my original message with links restored.
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If you want to do some work on writing, the Kanji Study app is pretty decent. It’s on iOS and Android, and you can break them up into sets to practice. It does some rudimentary handwriting recognition, so you can learn stroke order, and the recognition is generally good enough to make you learn and get it right.
Also, some enterprising champion of Wanikani made kanji practice sheets broken up by WK level, with plenty of writing space to work with. I usually write four big ones in the first four columns, and four little ones in the quarters of the last box.
I have no intention of ever learning how to write them I’m content just knowing how to read and speak. At the very least I’ll get around to practicing writing Hirigana and Katakana, just to get by.
Why are you learning Japanese? If you are/want to be an ALT, I would definitely recommend it. Nothing makes you more special a monkey than being able to write! I got applause from every single class when I came to Japan and could write many of the students names in my 自己紹介 lesson (I did a game where I had students introduce themselves and ask me one question in order to pair as many names with faces as possible). It’s even more effective if you have neater handwriting than your students!
If you’re not planning to live in Japan, then it’s just the argument of time, effort, and learning style. As has been mentioned, the time you take writing could be used for grammar exercises or other aspects of the language. In my case, writing is a critical aspect of distinguishing the kanji, as I am a weak visual learner. If I can’t remember without seeing the kanji its components and arrangement, I will most likely mess it up with another, especially since I run through lessons and reviews very quickly (I’m sometimes too fast to even use the override script to fix typos). If I didn’t write, I’d probably have to take a few seconds to analyze the kanji, whereas, with writing drills, except for specific kanji, I can immediately pick out the “unique” overall pattern without having to think about it, allowing me to blaze through reviews.
I’ve lived in Chinese speaking countries for about 4 years (China and Taiwan) and I took some formal Chinese classes that put a lot of emphasis on writing. (Our exams were all hand written no pinyin) and it was agonizingly difficult to write the characters from scratch. The only reason I got a passing grade was that I would look around in the exams for the character I needed to use and then write it while looking at it.
In reality, the only time I ever WROTE WROTE outside of classroom was to use my name for signatures.
However, I could text and type in Chinese like a giddy teenager. No problems.
And for some reason, I think it would be the same in Japan. (Oddly enough though, I do feel comfortable writing the hiragana, but I think it was designed to be that way)
Chinese characters are just too much memorization…
You know, that’s a great question.
I suspect the answer would lie somewhere in the intersection of Theory of Composition and Sociology .
My answer would be nuanced: with respect to the ability to communicate in written form, I would say “yes”; With respect to the ability to internalize and process that which is being written, I would posit “no”. After all in order for the two to be equivalent, they would have to be equal in all respects, and this leads me to an overall answer of “no”.
Then again, who am I? I have neither repute nor expertise in the field, so please take everything I say with a large serving of salt.
That’s quite interesting. I do suspect this depends on individuals though. Personally, despite being glued to my phone, and trained in Computer Science, I favor paper over technology when it comes to working through my thoughts.
Skritter is an app dedicated writing practice with stroke order enforcement. It’s intuitive and very complete. Please see the link below for recommendations.
And: Study routine concerns - #29 by VegasVed
Neurological studies on touch-typing would say that if you can quickly type what you want without having to look at the keyboard, you are literate (aka can write). Literacy by etymology comes from the Latin litteratus, which, contextually, simply meant someone who knows how to use letters (by default meaning reading and writing, since the Romans didn’t have computers ), so I’d say typing works.
One big issue though would be phonetic learners who can type. I have a much larger Japanese vocabulary than I do a kanji vocabulary, so, much like a Japanese child, it’s “possible” to type many words I don’t actually know how to read or write completely. I’d say this would NOT count, since you have to slowly navigate your space-bar menu to find the kanji that looks right rather than immediately choosing the one you want.
Pen & Paper usage is quickly dying ever since fax machines came out, and is further dying from things such as editable PDF documents, technology accessibility in classrooms (in America, at least), and social networking. I honestly think it would be laughable to insist that writing is superior to typing in reference to literacy in this age, as writing in general could become an art form (calligraphy) in a few decades.
I taught English before coming to Japan, and I realized once I had to use blackboards in Japan how bad my handwriting had become since I wrote so rarely after finishing high school. College was almost purely laptop usage, and it’s more efficient to display typed notes on a projector than to take the time to write things on a board, erase, and repeat.
I would like to point out that the vast majority of people live outside of the “Developed world”. Having grown up in one of those countries, I can assure you that pen and paper is very, very, very far from dying.
I’m content just knowing how to read and speak. At the very least I’ll get around to practicing writing Hirigana and Katakana, just to get by.
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), so I’d say typing works.
It has optional stoke order too.