# Left-handed people writing Japanese characters



## fille anglaise

Hi,

I'm left-handed and learning to write Kana. However, if I follow the instructions usually given for how to draw the characters, I'm pushing the pen when I should be pulling it and vice versa, and I assume this changes how the character looks.

So what's the best way to get around this? Should I carry on following the instructions exactly, do the strokes in the opposite direction or try to write Japanese characters with my right hand? (I understand from my Japanese teacher that Japanese children are generally made to write with their right hand)

Thanks in advance!


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## s_a_n_t_i

Hi Fille Anglaise.

I got to tell you that I'm left-handed and I've been studying Japanese -and that includes writing- for many years, and I haven't had any problem neither with kanji, nor kana at all. 
I think It's in you to get used to it. Just practice, practice, and you'll see the improvements.
I guess that the secret: practice and perseveranse.

Best regards,
Santi.


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## Flaminius

Not a few left-handed people can write with much more beautiful hand than right-handed yours sincerely can ever hope.  In fact I remember reading about a professional calligrapher who writes with his left hand due to disabilities on his right from early childhood.

It is true that Japanese script is implicitly designed for writing with right hand but I have not seen any scientific research explaining to what extent it is advantageous for right-handed people.  Even with several anecdotal cases I have seen, I assume the advantage that right-handedness accrues is not so great that it is insurmountable for left-handed people.

Forcing children to switch the dominant hand from left to right is continuously argued for and against by those who work in education.  Some argue that writing with the right hand is a must for learning the correct Japanese hand (if at all they know what they mean by correct).  Others argue that forcible switching can cause mental strain that might develop into psychological disorder such as psellism (for which there seems to be no quantitative research).  While the jury is still out, fewer teachers and parents are "correcting" the dominant hand of children, recognising handedness as part of children's personality.  This trend was already visible when I was in elementary school two decades ago.


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## Captain Haddock

Note that there is a significant difference on how one writes Japanese versus English.

The Latin alphabet is generally written with the pen at a right-sloping angle; writing with your left hand reverses the angle, making good penmanship more difficult.

When writing kanji and kana, however, you should hold your pen or brush vertically. The correct appearance of character strokes depends mostly (completely?) on pressure and stroke speed, rather than angle. It seems to me it should make no difference which hand you write with. However, Westerners learning Japanese usually make the mistake of trying to write with the pen at an angle. You can't form nice characters that way with either hand.


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## fille anglaise

Thanks for the replies!  I didn't know that you were supposed to hold the pen vertically, so I'll try and do that, and keep on persevering!


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## Flaminius

Japanese scripts are written with the pen at a right-sloping angle too.  Yet for left-handed people, holding the pen or brush vertically may help offset the disadvantage.


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## mimichan17

I'm left handed, and i have to say that i've only ever gotten compliments for beautiful penmenship in Japanese and English. It's just a matter of practice. You can't expect this to be easy! Gambatte and Good Luck!


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## Anatoli

There is a method to memorise characters better - for both Japanese and Chinese learners - write with the hand you don't usually write - you'll memorise them better because you have to concentrate more. Stroke order is very important. Not that I use this method  but I read about it and thought I should share it with you in this thread.


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## mimichan17

As far as remembering characters goes, I used the flashcard method myself. I never had trouble remembering them. If I remember correctly, I learned around 50 kanji by the end of 4 weeks. I went against the advice of others and learned kanji first, and tackled kana second. Why? Because the harder something is, the more I grasp it. Completely backwards, ne? It also helped me advance with learning some vocabulary faster, especially adjectives because the stem is a kanji! If normal methods don't work, come up with your own. Be creative. You know you better than anyone else. If repetition works best, listen to songs in japanese; if you're a visual learner, watch television dramas with subtitles in english. I used both for variety so I didn't get bored. Good Luck!


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## banzai443

I'm also left-handed, my penmanship in English is readable and sometimes better then my right-handed colleagues. In Japanese I've noticed that my writing isn't much different from fluent speakers handwriting. In a ratio there is a 1/100th's chance that you'll share a common hand writing style with somebody else, for us left handers this becomes 1/1,000th's of a chance because of the 17% of people who are left handers. so the more comfortable you write in a language the better you will write. I think the reason why you are having this problem is because there are 90% more people who are right handed and created all the writing forms, so you should just stick with what you know is comfortable, like I did.Also I've begun to learn arabic (which is written backwards right-left) it might seem easier, but it's not. Most angles are ment for a right tilt in arabic. with this added info I hope you find it useful


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