When a student is taught kana and kanji, one of the first thing that is explained to him is the concept of stroke order—the one and only correct way of writing the characters. Unfortunately, the reason behind it as well as the main rules are often left undiscussed.
Most students are left wondering about why they are supposed to learn one more characteristic for each of the already complicated characters, and some of them decide not to follow any of the well established rules at all. It is however very important to use correct stroke order and very easy to learn it as a few basic rules will cover the majority of the characters.
Why should I care?
First of all, unlike the Latin alphabet the Chinese characters and their Japanese deviations are always monospaced—each character occupies the same amount of space.
When you combine this typographic rule with the often incredible amount of strokes involved, it becomes clear, why writing nicely looking characters may be so difficult. Shodō 書道 is an art that was practiced for centuries and thus the proper way of writing kanji is a very well researched topic.
You may not believe it at first, but try writing the same kanji with different stroke orders and you’ll see the difference. Moreover, in Japan, an opinion about you may be formed based on your calligraphy. In the same way as by speaking improperly, your bad handwriting may make a bad impression on the others.
“Handwriting is civilization’s casual encephalogram.”
— LANCE MORROW
Secondly, stroke order is a great learning aid. Especially for some of the more complicated characters, one may forget how precisely a character looks, yet remember how to write it by following the correct order. This phenomenon is called motor memory and you probably already experience it in your every day life. Actually, neuromuscular facilitation is involved even in basic task like speech—one doesn’t think about complex tongue, lip, and other movements—and is the primary cause of accents.
At last, traditional paper kanji dictionaries are often organized by stroke order, and even if you decide to use handwriting recognition on a Tablet PC, a smartphone, or a dedicated denshi jisho (electronic dictionary), it will work best if you use the correct stroke order.
Housekeeping tip: Learn Japanese with a Tablet PC
One of the most useful devices for a learner of the Japanese language is a Tablet PC. Unfortunately fairly unknown among general public, these swivel-screen portable computers have a passive (touch/multitouch) and an active (pen) digitizer built in into their screens which allows you to operate the computer when standing, taking handwritten notes, and, most importantly, input kanji characters into a dictionary. Tablet PCs were first introduced in 2001, but due to their higher price didn’t gain much popularity. However, in the recent years, prices have fallen such thatyou can pick up a Tablet PC for less than 1000USD. We heartily recommend you to buy one if you are serious about learning Japanese.
If you can’t afford a Tablet PC, you should at least consider buying a tablet. Unless you are a digital artist (in which case you probably own one already), you don’t need anything fancy. A simple Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch (99USD) should be more than enough for learning purposes and will allow you to make handwritten notes and use handwriting recognition on your desktop computer.
Finally, you can also choose among the many slates (keyboard-less portable computers) on the market. Lacking an active digitizer and a full fledged operating system, Apple iOS4 or Android based slates may not give you all the possibilities, but small size and myriads of simple Japanese learning applications available for these devices makes them ideal for those interested in learning on the go.
Good writing practices
Although there are many exceptions, you generally won’t go wrong if you follow the rules below. As you’ll learn more kanji, the stroke order will become more natural and—with the exception of tricky kanji like 凹 (concave) or 凸 (convex) —you won’t have to think about it, or learn it kanji by kanji.
Top to bottom
Left to right
Center strokes are written before wings
Center strokes connecting to other strokes are written first
Center strokes passing through other strokes are written last
Frames that enclose other strokes are written first, but closed last
Right-to-left diagonals are written before left-to-right diagonals
Writing hiragana
Now it’s time to practice the rules we’ve just covered, and learn how to write hiragana at the same time! Print out the practice sheets below and write each character several times.
Shodō Girls!!
In case you’re still not confident in your calligraphy, here’s an example of how not to go about it from the Hong Kong movie The Prodigal Son.
