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Developing Japanese Handwriting


Gil
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The Boys are learning to read/write in Japanese. We think that they've got their kana now, in that they're able to reliably read both hiragana and katakana and can write them but their handwriting deteriorates on regular lined paper. If they use the paper with cells on their handwriting is "average" but they can't seem to write coherently on regular lined paper.

They asked me to buy them "Japanese paper" for them to practice on, but we have some graph paper around here already. Will 1/2inch graph paper be sufficient to practice or should I invest in the special Japanese paper/composition notebooks while they're still in the stage of needing scaffolding and support to write legibly.

What about when they move on to Kanji? They're starting Kanji this summer. Will they be able to write on 1/2inch graph paper, or should I go ahead and just begin stocking up on genuine Japanese writing paper now?

 

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For kana I wouldn't worry about the special paper, in fact I wouldn't worry about the kana getting a bit sloppy--if you look up examples of normal handwriting by native Japanese speakers you will find that it does not maintain rigid form.

For kanji, the special writing paper can be helpful while learning characters to get proportions right. Again, once writing becomes more established it is OK for kanji to become less rigidly structured--the most important things are general proportions of the kanji components and stroke order.

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23 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

My oldest took 5 years of Japanese in school but I don’t recall that she ever had special paper to practice the writing.  

But before you go buy some paper, check out printablepaper.net and see if you can find something there.  There a bazillion different types of paper there.  

Thanks for the link, we've printed out a few sheets and are using paper protectors on them for now but I'll let them buy a few packs of paper when they get to Kanji if they really want to.

@maize and @happysmileylady Do you recommend a particular pen for Kanji? Currently, they're using regular ink pens for the Kana, but we're due for new pens in a few months anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

THE FIRST 103 KANJI print yourself japanese style workbook (free to use, no copyright) https://www.uni-passau.de/fileadmin/dokumente/hsg/nippon/Skripte/kanjibookjlptn5.pdf

“This book helps beginners of the Japanese language memorizing and writing the first 103 kanji characters required for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N5.
Each kanji is represented on one page featuring:
 Its meaning
 The onyomi and kunyomi readings
 Vocabulary that includes this kanji
 The number of strokes and the stroke order with a link to the
NIHONGO ICHIBAN website to video showing the stroke order
 The radicals (components) the kanji consists of
 A hint to help memorizing the kanji
 A grid to exercise writing
You can print each page on your own printer and repeat the writing exercises as often as you like.”

ETA:

More resources here https://nihongoichiban.com/books/

Edited by Arcadia
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Perhaps these Chinese character practice sheets will help. I would think they definitely would with kanji. http://chineseprintables.com/

Or you can order inexpensive practice workbooks like this. I saw people commenting that they were using them for Japanese. I get them at the Chinese bookstore. https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Character-Practice-Book-Package/dp/B008AMJ8TO

Edited by calbear
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