French handwriting

[Chancer]

You would think that after 11 years I might be getting to grips with it but most peoples handwriting still remains a mystery to me, people wanting a reciept write down their e-mail address for me and I usually have to ask them to write it again in majuscule as its illegible to me.

 

Now I have a handwritten note accompanying a deposit cheque with the womans phone number and I cannot even read the numbers [:'(]

 

There is a "1" that looks like a "7" but I am used to that, there is something resembling a flowery lower case "f' "where the top loop crosses back over the horizontal bar, I think that must be a 7 but there is also a perfect lower case "h", what number is that supposed to be?

 

From the numbers written on the cheque which are also written in text I can rule out 1, 2, 5 and 6 and can be sure of the 1 that looks like a 7.

 

Do the French not have problems abroad when writing numbers? 

[Gardengirl]

Chancer, we have French friends of 30 years and still find their handwriting tricky. We have a lot of French people who take part in our English classes (40+ last year) and, like you, always have to ask them to write their email addresses in capitals.

Hope you can get your client's details sorted out - can you read the dates she wants to book for?

[idun]

My kids tend to write 4's that look like h's to me.

And they say that my m's look like n's to them

They were taught to write like my grandmother and she was born in 1879! I didn't like hers and I do not like my children writing like that.

I have too indecipherable letters here, one from the head teacher at my kids maternelle who dropped me a line and one from a friend. My OH can make some of it out, but not all.

[Loiseau]

Yes, I was going to say a 4 for that h-type thing, too, Chancer!

I agree about the old-fashioned style of French handwriting; I can always recognise it even on an envelope WITHOUT a French stamp!

Americans write in a distinctive curly style, too - though not in quite the same way as the French.

I always feel we British have an infinitely varied style, though I do remember having to practise "Marion Richardson" style at school (who on earth was she?)

Angela

[nomoss]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Now I have a handwritten note accompanying a deposit cheque with the womans phone number and I cannot even read the numbers [:'(]

There is a "1" that looks like a "7" but I am used to that, there is something resembling a flowery lower case "f' "where the top loop crosses back over the horizontal bar, I think that must be a 7 but there is also a perfect lower case "h", what number is that supposed to be?[/quote]

"7" = 1, as you suspect. -  The French like large serifs. Also distinguishes it from an "I".

"f " = 7  - They have to swing out before a corner, as when turning right.

"h" = 4  - Avoids taking the pen off the paper

Our postcode is 11160 and some of our mail has been returned to the UK as the post people (or their machine) couldn't identify the handwritten "ones".

[Mac]

Gosh Loiseau-yes Marion Richardson. That' a blast from the past! We did that as well using a pink wooden handled 'dipping' pen with a removable nib and ink in asn inkwell in the desk. And I'm not so old-this would have been in the early 60's. Ages spent making curly patterns to make sure you formed the lines correctly and done on paper with 3 lines. Writing on the centre line with the upper line marking the limit for tall letters ( h,f,t ect) and the lower line for the lower letters (y,g ect). I used to love doing it. Certainly made for clear handwriting.

[Gardengirl]

Mac, I'd forgotten those 3 lines for practising the Marion Richardson style of handwriting!

Marion Richardson believed that easy movements of the hand and arm using free cursive writing were the best way to prepare for handwriting.

The first school I taught at used MR and my whole class of small children would 'write' in the air before getting down to doing patterns in their workbooks. They would draw pages of beautiful cursive patterns and developed lovely, neat handwriting which was also speedy.

MR was also a very important figure in art education.

[Chancer]

I had deduced that it must be a 4 but there is no resemblance at all to the typewritten number, the telephone number looks just like a hexadecimal code.

 

The m's and n's also throw me, either an N has so many flowery loops that it looks like an M or an M and an N, or the M will not have the second loop written so its exactly the same as one of their N's, no doubt they can see the difference.

 

Its like trying to work out someones name from their signature.

 

Having been apprenticed as an engineering design draughtsman and spending the first month in the drawing office doing nothing but "printing" meaning handwriting numbers and writing in block capitals until not only was my scrawl legible but conformed to the standard I have little patience for those who dont understand the importance of written and verbal communication, I have never known an area like mine where people are such poor communicators, they really are like feral children that just grunt at each other. The written communication, if you can read it is no better.

 

The cheque and note came from the South, the flowery script is universal in France and I get the impression that schoolkids have to suffer months of it like I did in the drawing office, when I have taught here and written on the blackboard in capital letters, the only clear way to communicate they all look at me bemused, maybe they think I am shouting [:D]

 

Truth be known since having block capital printing forced on me and with all my engineering communication done that way I have completely lost how to do joined up writing and what I did at school was illegible anyway, I really could not write a sentence or even a word in lower case with joined up letters, I dont know how to do so.

[Pierre ZFP]

My handwriting always was, and still is terrible - I should have been a doctor.

I think it has something to do with wanting to get ideas down on paper before they evaporate.

My bad handwriting got me into much trouble at school with detentions and 'do-overs'.  I flummoxed my wonderful English teacher as I always did well in exams but got marked down for presentation so I asked 'what is more important, what I write or how it is written?' No answer [:)]

I feel vindicated in not writing well as if we were meant to, God wouldn't have given us laser printers [geek]

[Patf]

Apart from the numbers I find french handwriting beautiful.

Mine's a disgrace, it's a wonder anyone can read it.

[alittlebitfrench]

I can't actually write. I have a metal blockage between my brain and my hand. I avoid using a pen at all costs. It is so embarrassing.

I have a fantastic memory though.

When my OH sends a letter the UK I am amazed it actually gets to its destination especially if it involves numbers.

[idun]

 And I do not like Marion Richardson style either.

Frankly, I detest the handwriting french kids had to do. More time spent on that than there should have been and NEVER EVER did either of my children actually write a story between CP and CM2, use their imagination, and don't get me on about 'art'......... and that was between CP and 3eme..........! And maybe even in college, they did not write a story. That butterflies ever emerge from that system is saying more about that person and a joy to me.

[Department71]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Truth be known since having block capital printing forced on me and with all my engineering communication done that way I have completely lost how to do joined up writing and what I did at school was illegible anyway, I really could not write a sentence or even a word in lower case with joined up letters, I dont know how to do so.

[/quote]

Chancer, its exactly the same for me, when I joined a firm years ago I was told by my then boss to write in blocks as that can always be read by everyone, did it for 20 years and I now can't write "joined up" now, lost the knack.

Very embarrassing.

[Chancer]

Use it or lose it!

 

There is something else that has had little use in recent years, luckily with that its like riding a bike [:P]