handwriting

[Stuart Thiessen]

Well, Valerie, I was rather dismayed by your characterization of my  
comment as "SignWriting will fail ..." That is a misinterpretation of  
my position. I never said that SignWriting cannot be written by hand.  
Nor did I say that SignWriting would fail because of it. Further, for  
the people that I have worked with, they have not had the motivation  
to write by hand. They wanted simpler forms that could be written more  
quickly. I was merely sharing my experience. If others have had a  
better experience, I am glad for them. That doesn't mean that my  
experience or position should be put down in such a derogatory manner.  
Forgive my strong words, but it was very hard to read your email.

My point is simply that one way that we can make it easier for people  
to adopt SignWriting is to have that handwriting instruction ready in  
the training. How many of us learned to write a spoken language by  
trying to copy the way it is printed in a book?  No, our teachers gave  
us instruction on how to form handwritten letters while at the same  
time we learned how to read the printed form. That was all I was  
trying to say. That is why I am glad that Stefan is working on a  
Handwriting book. That is a needed resource.

Thanks,

Stuart

On Dec 9, 2008, at 15:57 , Valerie Sutton wrote:

> SignWriting List
> December 9, 2008
>
> On Dec 9, 2008, at 1:06 PM, Adam Frost wrote:
>> I think that this discussion has been very interesting. Mainly  
>> because my sister and brother-in-law have been using SignWriting  
>> more and more. In fact, my brother-in-law just showed me a hand  
>> written collage of writings in which he is practicing. He had  
>> called me on the video phone to see if he was writing signs  
>> correctly. He also showed me a hand written note from my sister to  
>> him. They are both at the stage in learning where they look up the  
>> words in the dictionary, which is quite normal for beginning. As I  
>> was writing this, my brother-in-law called me back to ask me how to  
>> write a sign that was not in the dictionary. He had some  
>> difficulty, but he will get the hang of it. I just think it is  
>> interesting he is mostly writing by hand, which is what we have  
>> been talking about.
>
> This is wonderful, Adam! Your family members and friends are welcome  
> to join the SignWriting List...and I created a Mexican Literature  
> Puddle for them too...
>
> But I want to share with you a funny irony...
>
> SignWriting will be 35 years old in 2009.
>
> In the first decade of SignWriting, from 1974-1984, there was ONLY  
> writing by hand. There was nothing else. We developed the Shorthand  
> in 1981-1984 too, and people said to me that SignWriting would still  
> fail because "it can never be written by machine"...
>
> Then, in the second and third decades, we worked and focused on  
> developing "machines to write SignWriting", and now we have  
> accomplished that in different ways, to such an extent, that new  
> students oftentimes learn on computers without learning to write by  
> hand first. Now, according to Stuart, we are told that SignWriting  
> will fail because "it cannot be written by hand?"...smile...  
> or..."it cannot be written by hand fast enough"...
>
> and all those predictions of failure have ALWAYS been  
> false...SignWriting is still here, 35 years later, and we have BOTH  
> writing by machine and writing by hand...it is a matter of choice  
> and education...
>
> Your brother-in-law is learning SignWriting by writing by hand, and  
> that is the way the writing system started...
>
> Val ;-)
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________
>
> SW-L SignWriting List
>
> Post Message
> SW-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
>
> List Archives and Help
> http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/
>
> Change Email Settings
> http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l
>




____________________________________________

SW-L SignWriting List

Post Message
SW-L at majordomo.valenciacc.edu

List Archives and Help
http://www.signwriting.org/forums/swlist/

Change Email Settings
http://majordomo.valenciacc.edu/mailman/listinfo/sw-l