Russian handwriting in US classrooms in the computer age

[Jane Frances Hacking]

Dear SEELANGERS,
I recall there being a discussion in the US regarding SAT essay performance and the cursive question. Here is a quick link I dug up about the issue. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001475.html
I don't know the research referred to in the article, but the references to work on the connection between speed of writing (cursive being faster) and complexity of essays produced by students is intriguing. Also the connection between grading by teachers being dependent on quality of handwriting is sobering. Although presumably as the teacher cadre is replenished with printers and typers this effect will disappear(?)
Best,
Jane Hacking
________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Paul B. Gallagher [paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM]
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 5:42 PM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Russian handwriting in US classrooms in the computer age

Michael Denner wrote:

> 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.

I suppose it matters what their purpose is in taking the class.

If they're hard science majors wanting to get through a year of the
language to meet a requirement and perhaps stumble through the odd
journal article in their fields, handwriting won't serve any useful purpose.

If they're majoring in Russian or have some other serious use for the
language and don't want their counterparts to smirk at them, I'd say
it's part of the culture and they should learn it, just as an Arabic
student learns to sit on his left hand at the dinner table and a
Japanese student learns to bow on meeting a superior.

And Galina Rylkova's point about speed is well taken, though I confess
I've occasionally been baffled when I saw words like пишите in my notes:
12 bumps and a "е"??? ;-)

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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