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For all the dedicated primary teachers who insisted that we’d always need legible handwriting, here’s our retort: Have you ever seen cursive Russian? If you thought deciphering a doctor’s scribbles was tough, wait till you witness the artistic whirls of Russian script.
When Twitter user Christian stumbled upon the Russian cursive alphabet and shared his discovery with a pair of images captioned “Losing my mind after learning about Russian cursive,” we were initially baffled. The photos looked like pages plucked right out of the mysterious Voynich manuscript or perhaps the scribbles of someone attempting to prime a new ballpoint pen.
However, as more Twitter users chimed in with their own renditions of Russian handwriting, the reality dawned on us. This wasn’t whimsy; it was a genuine writing style. So the next time someone critiques your cursive, just mention how a doctor’s note in Russian cursive could easily be mistaken for abstract art. Rest assured, your penmanship is just fine.
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Christian tweeted that he’d lost his mind over how crazy Russian cursive is, and the post went viral
Image credits: beanerbastard
People joined the thread and posted more baffling examples of handwriting in Russian
Image credits: slumberalien
Image credits: slumberalien
Is Russian Cursive Taught In Schools?
If cursive wasn’t hard enough already, Russian cursive letters take it to a whole new level. Still, students learn Russian cursive writing from first grade.
Natasha Alexandrova, a Russian language educator and the author of “Russian Step By Step,” claims that “learning cursive writing gives you an insight into the Russian way of doing it.”
She explains, “Any Russian who went to school will gladly reminisce about the school years when they used Propisi and learned how to handwrite correctly (some have fond memories while others remember rewriting those letters a million times until they were perfect), but everyone had that experience.”
Image credits: poppy_haze
Image credits: ellasrhapsody
Someone pointed out that Trump’s signature has an uncanny resemblance to Russian cursive
Image credits: RageofBaltimore
Do All Russians Write In Cursive Or Is It A Dying Art?
In Russian culture, mastering handwriting is part of the growing process and a notable milestone in a child’s educational and personal development.
Russians almost always use cursive when writing by hand. If someone writes in print, it could be perceived as childish or unnatural, suggesting a strong cultural preference for cursive writing in Russia.
It turns out that writing by hand is so widely popular in Russia that people still write letters, postcards, post-its, notes to family and friends, recipes, contact information, addresses, and shopping lists.
Russian cursive makes this doctor’s notice super baffling
Image credits: yung_pissbaby
More people shared their handwriting
Image credits: meviosblom
Image credits: AlchemistLily
If you plan to visit Russia and think that print would suffice, you may be wrong. Natasha suggests, “You will encounter handwritten signs and even names of stores, stations, and other important things printed in fonts that mimic the handwriting.”
Image credits: thefaustiansprt
Image credits: dori_reborned
Image credits: nana_PhoebeWB
Is Russian in Cursive Really That Hard To Read?
We all know that learning a new language brings a host of challenges. However, when it comes to the intricacies of cursive Russian, even native Russians can get stumped at times.
Apparently, there’s even a term that Russians use, “медицинский почерк” (“medical handwriting”), to describe some extreme examples of hard-to-read handwriting, drawing a humorous parallel to the notorious illegibility of doctors’ calligraphy.
If you’re curious to see just how intricate it can get, take a look at these other examples of Russian cursive below!
Image credits: kagamirror03
Image credits: Anniecuteddy
Image credits: DShimmm
Image credits: m_1_n_3_k_0
Image credits: Ksenia59231310
Image credits: illbuyuawhiskey
Image credits: efountain_
Image credits: neonailol
Image credits: slumberalien
Image credits: thebloodwood
Image credits: noorah0298
Image credits: bloody_seams
What do you think ?
Will Fenton 5 years ago
Medieval English did the same thing, as did most other cursive scripts in the pre-industrial age. Because natural quill pens only work effectively on the down stroke the cursive script tends to emphasise the vertical letters. In Med English they result in words that represent a series of very densely spaced serrations- emphasising the vertical 'timing' of the word. The problem is, you need a working knowledge of language to actually understand the word because a word made up of 5 or 6 minims could represent literally thousands of words . This wasn't so much of a problem in the medieval period as most texts were legal or religious and therefore followed very set patterns. If you know what the document is about, you can usually infer the word from its context. I always found medieval Latin a lot easier to transcribe than some 19th and 20th century cursives because of this. The UK National Archives runs free online courses in paleography if you're interested in finding out more.
Will Fenton 5 years ago
mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt- the most famous example of this. Minims_pal...0d60fa.jpg 
Kathy Baylis 5 years ago (edited)
Um, I‘m an American who took Russian language in college years ago, so have written in Cyrillic, both printing and cursive. Since I wanted to get a decent grade I was careful to write legibly. But. But! You really do not want to see my handwriting in my own language. Though it was good while I was learning it in elementary school, once I got to high school and college, and had several instructors who spoke fast, wrote fast, and erased even faster during lectures, my efforts to write as much down in my lecture notes as I could before they disappeared (pre-computers, so nowhere for instructors to upload PowerPoint presentations) meant my handwriting became a scrawl that even I sometimes couldn’t read. It hasn’t improved since. So I tend to go easy on people whose handwriting isn’t perfect. Include doctors in that now. Though you might still get a handwritten scrip once in a while, they’re more likely to enter them online, where they’re printed legibly (as long as the doc can spell!).
Martz Migraña 5 years ago
It happened to me kind of the same. My handwriting is, without excuses, just as bad as a drunken doctor's script. But when I stated studying japanese, I really put a lot of effort on the properly writing of the kana and kanji, I'd write them so neat and smooth even my teacher would be constantly complementing me on it and wondering why my regular handwriting was do awful. Of course, nobody wanna write s****y kanji! They're hard enough when legible, now Imagen them written in a crooked and messy way! Haha
Load More Replies...
Will Fenton 5 years ago
Medieval English did the same thing, as did most other cursive scripts in the pre-industrial age. Because natural quill pens only work effectively on the down stroke the cursive script tends to emphasise the vertical letters. In Med English they result in words that represent a series of very densely spaced serrations- emphasising the vertical 'timing' of the word. The problem is, you need a working knowledge of language to actually understand the word because a word made up of 5 or 6 minims could represent literally thousands of words . This wasn't so much of a problem in the medieval period as most texts were legal or religious and therefore followed very set patterns. If you know what the document is about, you can usually infer the word from its context. I always found medieval Latin a lot easier to transcribe than some 19th and 20th century cursives because of this. The UK National Archives runs free online courses in paleography if you're interested in finding out more.
Will Fenton 5 years ago
mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt- the most famous example of this. Minims_pal...0d60fa.jpg
Kathy Baylis 5 years ago (edited)
Um, I‘m an American who took Russian language in college years ago, so have written in Cyrillic, both printing and cursive. Since I wanted to get a decent grade I was careful to write legibly. But. But! You really do not want to see my handwriting in my own language. Though it was good while I was learning it in elementary school, once I got to high school and college, and had several instructors who spoke fast, wrote fast, and erased even faster during lectures, my efforts to write as much down in my lecture notes as I could before they disappeared (pre-computers, so nowhere for instructors to upload PowerPoint presentations) meant my handwriting became a scrawl that even I sometimes couldn’t read. It hasn’t improved since. So I tend to go easy on people whose handwriting isn’t perfect. Include doctors in that now. Though you might still get a handwritten scrip once in a while, they’re more likely to enter them online, where they’re printed legibly (as long as the doc can spell!).
Martz Migraña 5 years ago
It happened to me kind of the same. My handwriting is, without excuses, just as bad as a drunken doctor's script. But when I stated studying japanese, I really put a lot of effort on the properly writing of the kana and kanji, I'd write them so neat and smooth even my teacher would be constantly complementing me on it and wondering why my regular handwriting was do awful. Of course, nobody wanna write s****y kanji! They're hard enough when legible, now Imagen them written in a crooked and messy way! Haha
Load More Replies...
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