I’m in the process of learning Japanese with the intention of working there in the future (JET programme), although there is one concern I have. My handwriting is pretty atrocious, and it’s even worse when it comes to writing Japanese.
I absolutely have no problem reading Japanese (at least the kanas, so far), and I can identify characters easily, but writing them and trying to remember the proper stroke order is a whole other story.
I’m just wondering if this is a concern I should be worried about and if I should work on my penmanship before moving to Japan?
14 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**How often are you required to write Japanese (by hand) while living in Japan?**
I’m in the process of learning Japanese with the intention of working there in the future (JET programme), although there is one concern I have. My handwriting is pretty atrocious, and it’s even worse when it comes to writing Japanese.
I absolutely have no problem reading Japanese (at least the kanas, so far), and I can identify characters easily, but writing them and trying to remember the proper stroke order is a whole other story.
I’m just wondering if this is a concern I should be worried about and if I should work on my penmanship before moving to Japan?
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Take a calligraphy course – Shodo will help you learn not just the stroke order (which gives the letters their shape), but where to emphasize the ink, and where not to.
I had horrible handwriting in English and realized it was because I rushed too much.
Shodo taught me to slow down and enjoy writing!
Nowadays I write in Japanese about 40% the time – mostly taking memo’s or notes in a meeting.
Half of that is with a pen, the other half typed on my laptop.
But I am old so I like to write on paper as opposed to a tablet or typing. It helps me remember things better when I physically write it down.
I am a Japanese born and raised here, honestly I can’t remember when I wrote Japanese by hand last time except name and address. I’ve pretty much forgotten how to write Chinese character though I can still read them. So, maybe you don’t have to worry bout writing Japanese as I believe it’s not that often u have to write Japanese though it may dependent on what u do here.
You have to write by hand when you need to fill in paperwork at the city office, bank, and when you have to write down address for sending stuff.
Simply put:rarely. This is not a “skill” worth cultivating in my opinion.
My wife could write basic kanji and it always seemed to impress Japanese people. There’s still a lot of paperwork but it’s not a major part of day to day life.
Yep, drivers license forms require kanji. I do my best but they often correct my writing lol
I write my address down a few times a year on various forms and I write my name down to check in at a restaurant every now and then. That’s pretty much it. Work is entirely digital and most forms can be done online in personal life.
>My handwriting is pretty atrocious, and it’s even worse when it comes to writing Japanese.
One of the projects I’ve been working on at my previous job was OCR system to read and interpret Japanese hand-written receipts for accounting purposes. Trust me, many Japanese also have atrocious handwriting and even worse (especially when in a hurry or trying to fit a lot of characters into narrow space or small piece of paper). xD
As a foreigner you’ll probably have to deal with handwritten characters only when filling in the papers at banks, city or post offices, so – not that often and you’ll always have plenty of time to even re-draw the kanji you need stroke by stroke from the screen of your phone. Most of the times things you’ll have to use kanji for would be addresses, your company name and names-surnames of Japanese nationals.
To sum up, if you have time and interest in learning how to write – do that, but don’t worry too much about not being able to write kanji by hand, not the top-priority thing to have for your daily life in Japan.
When I first moved to Japan I was able to get by with little handwriting. I practiced and now I actually enjoy handwriting.
The couple of situations that I needed it, the bank and city office, the person saw how much I struggled so they took pity on me and wrote it out themselves. You would think that I should be able to copy my address from my residence card to bank account application form with little trouble. Every time I made a mistake the bank agent would have me cross it out, initial it, and then make the correction above it.
When I started taking Japanese lessons I practiced Hiragana and Katakana a lot. I have notebooks full of practice writing. I’ve also practiced a little bit of Kanji for commonly used characters like those in my address.
Now it’s fun to write out something in Japanese at a hotel or on a form. Japanese act impressed and are encouraging when I write out something.
Once a few days? Usually waiting at restaurants
I’ve lived here for about 6 years. I might have written Japanese once or twice by hand. Name and address can be written in English in 99.9% of the various documents I’ve been asked to fill over the years.
Name, address, an occasional note for someone. Mostly it’s just reading and selecting the right kanji when typing it out.
You don’t need to worry about your penmanship. Every Japanese person I know makes the same self-deprecating jokes about how messy their handwriting is.
It is still a necessary skill imo.
You’ll be filling out forms more than in other countries, more by hand than in other countries. It’ll happen whenever you sign contracts, it’ll happen whenever you send domestic mail, etc, etc.
You could get away without it, sure. For me, feeling like an idiot for not being able to in those few times I need to is enough motivation to.
What advice would you give to someone asking the same question about English as an immigrant to the Anglosphere? Would being able to write or not constrain that person’s opportunities? There, I think, the most important answer will lie.
To put this into perspective, while working as an ALT I’ve noticed that the Japanese writing of at least half of the JTE’S (when writing on a blackboard or electronic board) is terrible, and for me as a non-native Japanese learner can often read little of it as it is so illegible, yet in that time I have no seen a single student (while reading/copying down what the JTE has written) confirm Kana/Kanji characters because they were not sure if it was one or another. So the way I figure it, messily written Japanese is easier for native Japanese to read than messy English writing read by a native English speaker (or non-native English learner). This is only from what I have observed (and also heard from JTE’s and Japanese students), but might be different in different job occupations/work places.