“Just keep practicing” isn’t really working because I can’t compare my own writing to itself to improve, as I would in English. It’s not helpful to identically copy the font in the workbook. I almost wish there was a selection of Japanese fonts I could study. Does something like this exist?
Does anyone else have this problem?
It’s a really big roadblock for me, because I’m not able to move forward improving on this, just comparing my writing to itself. It feels more like I’m *solidifying* the habit of ugly writing instead of improving.
It’s really discouraging being like, is that angle weird? That character has an extra little line there in *this* font, but not that one… which is average?
4 comments
You don’t want to learn from printed fonts.
https://happylilac.net/hiragana-h.html
These are printouts meant for Japanese kids.
If you’re having difficulty navigating, maybe just try direct to these and just click on which kana you want (they’re pdfs)
https://happylilac.net/50hiragana-a.html
https://happylilac.net/50hiragana-ha.html
One thing to note in addition to stroke order and direction is that they show strokes with とめる、はらう、はねる at the end. (stop sweep or flick).
There are computer/type fonts in Japanese that look different than handwritten Japanese. Same as in English. You ever look at a serif lower case g and try to write it by hand?
Of the computer style fonts, you can find serif and sans serif. Either way don’t try to copy these because they do sometimes have extra strokes and they’re not really meant to be handwritten.
There are also fonts meant to mimic handwritten calligraphy.
In handwritten Japanese there’s also a difference between the handwriting taught to children, the messy handwriting of an adult take notes, or brush calligraphy, etc.
As for practicing, head over to Google and search for “hiragana worksheets” or “kanji worksheets” etc etc. You will find hundreds. There are also hundreds of videos on YouTube.
If you’d like to see examples of different kinds of writing you can check this [yahoo Japan image search](https://search.yahoo.co.jp/image/search?ei=UTF-8&p=%E6%89%8B%E6%9B%B8%E3%81%8D&fr=applep2&aq=-1&oq=&aa=0&iau=0) for 手書き (handwriting)
Copying what’s considered good proper handwriting is far more forgiving than copying computer fonts. I also find it helps to watch people’s writing in motion (i.e., go for videos, not photos) since the people who tend to film themselves writing also tend to explain what they’re doing. The following channels are great models:
* https://youtube.com/@yumefude
* https://youtube.com/@seihou
* https://youtube.com/@sngwshodo
* https://youtube.com/@man-yo
* https://youtube.com/@takumitohgu
* https://youtube.com/@hasegawayuki
I also recommend watching [this playlist](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD3A32FF2555EC1B8) for more concise guidelines. The channels I linked to, as well as other handwriting resources available, follow these on some level, though there is room for deviation. That’s why I said copying proper handwriting is more forgiving. You don’t need it to be “pixel-perfect.”
As others have mentioned, the issue is likely from copying printed text rather than written text.
I’m mostly here to reassure you that handwriting isn’t always neat. If you want, I can send you an example of my mum’s handwriting. My partner is learning Japanese and he struggles reading it 🥲