Russian handwriting in US classrooms in the computer age

[RYLKOVA,GALINA S]

Michael,

I'm teaching second-year Russian this fall and have 18 students 
four days a week. Needless to say, it is a very big group for a 
conversation class and one needs to move very fast to allow 
everyone to practice words and expressions, ask questions, etc. 
They all had different instructors at the first level. Those who 
write in cursive can follow my writing on the board, and those who 
print do it twice as slowly and are always behind. Try printing a 
Russian "D" for example. If properly mastered, cursive saves a lot 
of time and gives pleasure to students at the early stages (I know 
it from teaching first-year students on a regular basis).

All the best,

Galina

On Thu Sep 09 19:05:59 EDT 2010, Michael Denner 
<mdenner at STETSON.EDU> wrote:

> Sarah,
> My students write Russian just fine. It's just not cursive. They 
> write like children, and the Russians probably smirk at them. Who 
> cares? No one's suggesting returning to a pre-literate era. It's 
> just a bloody waste of time to spend a week, a day, an hour on a 
> totally unnecessary skill: Pretty handwriting. ~mad
> 
> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
> ???? Dr. Michael A. Denner
> ???? Associate Professor of Russian Studies
> ???? Editor, Tolstoy Studies Journal
>    Director, Russian Studies Program
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> ?????????? Stetson University
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures 
> list [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of sarah hurst
> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 6:56 PM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian handwriting in US classrooms in 
> the computer age
> 
> I have to say that I am rather disturbed by the idea that today's 
> students
> no longer even need to learn Russian handwriting. Are we raising 
> kids who
> are going to be completely at a loss if they should ever find 
> themselves
> without access to a computer, cell phone or other digital device? 
> Is such a
> scenario really so implausible, especially in Russian-speaking 
> countries
> where limited internet access and power outages have been known?
> 
> It doesn't even take very long to learn handwriting but I do 
> think it's an
> essential skill for both reading and writing. What if they happen 
> to work
> with historical documents? What if a room-mate leaves them an 
> important
> note? I hope this skill will continue to be taught. Would you 
> similarly
> contemplate not bothering to teach English-speaking kids not to 
> write their
> own language by hand? Sarah Hurst
> 
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--
Galina S. Rylkova
Associate Professor of Russian
Undergraduate Coordinator for Russian Studies
Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Office hours: Tuesdays 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
256 Dauer Hall
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611
USA
grylkova at ufl.edu
http://www.languages.ufl.edu/russian

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