Left hander learning to write right handed?

[xkfow]

After trying to write more natural looking chinese for a while now as a left hander, After some discussions with some chinese friends, I have discovered that it is easier (but slower and more messy) for me to get more natural looking chinese by writing with my right hand! who would have thought! I certainly didn't.

So as of now I am starting to practice writing with my right hand, which is a slow and frustrating process, but interestingly enough my right-handed hand-writing looks more like authentic chinese kids hand-writing than what my left handed neater writing ever did!

That said, has anyone else gone through this process and have any tips or other useful relevant information?

I generally disagree with what is said in this earlier thread http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/11998-writing-chinese-characters-but-left-handed/ which is basically a bunch of left handed people saying it is ok to write left handed. I agree you can write chinese left handed, but based on my experience I find it hard to believe a left hander could write authentic/natural looking chinese.

[Mike N]

I'm left-handed and I agree that it makes writing Chinese characters a bit more difficult than normal, but it's not impossible. I think that fundamentally, writing beautiful/natural-looking Chinese characters comes from the dedicated study of Chinese calligraphy in its various forms. However, if you're really going for broke, then teaching yourself to write right-handed may very well be easier than teaching your left hand to mimic right-handed writing.

[renzhe]

I originally tried to write Chinese right-handed, but quickly gave up on it. Relearning decades of fine motor control is not worth it for regular everyday writing, IMHO. If you have big plans for calligraphy, then it might be worth it.

[Shelley]

Hi,

I am right handed and have found that since learning chinese I can write left handed much better.(not brilliant but certainly legible). Chinese is one of the very few languages that uses both halves of the brain. The graphical aspect uses one half and the language aspect(grammer, syntax etc.) uses the other. Maybe this explains the adaptability of using either hand for either purpose. Well its just my therory Shelley

[Meng Lelan]

I've done left handed writing in Chinese for two decades now and it doesn't make a major impact. For one thing I am not into calligraphy and for another thing, so much writing is done by typing on computers and text messages. Just be sure to get your stroke orders correct and be sure to have your left hand go in the same direction as a right hand in doing those strokes.

[Brian US]

I write left handed and for the most part I will start from right to left like writing 一. I know it's "wrong" but the way I hold a pen it makes it easier to pull towards me. I'm teased for my English looking like a child's writing, so I don't mind if my Chinese isn't beautiful.

Plus I always get Chinese people remarking about how all left handers are smart.

[xiaocai]

I used write with my left hand before 6, but was forced to switch to using right hand when I got into primary school by my parents, the reason being that they wanted me to be the same as other kids in classed so I will not be made fun of. But apart from that I didn't not notice any significant improvement or deterioration of my hand writing (was not great for a 6 year old kid) when I switched hand. The only problem now is that even I can still write very slowly with my left hand, it will still look like written by a 6 year old. So I'd day given the same amount time of practice you can actually write with left hand as well as other people do with their right hands.

[xkfow]

I've put in about 10 hours practice so far and am making a small improvement with my right hand! (:

I'll post about my progression, I will either improve or give up, not sure yet (:

[Lu]

I'm right-handed, but wanted to be ambidexter, so in high school I started to train writing left-handed. As I remember it I kept it up for several months, alternating right- and left-handed writing, but my left-handed writing was still a lot slower and sloppier than right-handed. In the end I gave up.

For a long time, left-handedness was considered wrong, so my grandmother's generation (and some generations before that as well, I guess) were forced to write right-handed. Even after years, it still didn't get comfortable.

Seems to me that changing your writing hand is a lot of effort and it never really works completely. All the lefties I know who know Chinese write it left-handed. The advantages of writing with your wrong hand don't outweigh the disadvantages, in my opinion.

[Hofmann]

Perhaps some people find it more difficult to switch writing hands than others. I'm right handed. I've experimented writing mirrored Chinese characters with my left hand and I'm pretty confident that if the world's writing systems were designed for lefties, I'd have switched to writing left handed from childhood with no problem.

Hell, I might just do that on next semester's homework, scan it, flip it, and print it. It might increase my mental flexibility.