Chinese characters writing style for lefthanded

[Anonymous]

I just want to ask if there is any plan to improve the handwriting regocnition by including also the normal way of writing by a lefthanded person. I never tried it with this software, but if I try it with a normal elecontronic dictionary it does usually not regocnize the character because left handed people write the lines (for example the direction) in a different way.

 

[mikelove]

I wasn't aware that there was a difference - could you give me an example of how the stroke direction differs? My impression has always been that there's only one official direction / order for strokes, regardlesss of which hand you write with. After all, when stroke order was first invented, this was all being done with a brush or a carving tool and it wouldn't make much difference which hand you were writing with (since there's no smudge potential in any case).

As for our software, we have quite a lot of left-handed customers and none of them have reported any problems with this in the past - in fact we've gotten several compliments for supporting left-handedness in our interface by offering the option of putting the entry list and the handwriting input box on the left side of the screen instead of the right. The handwriting recognizer we use is fairly tolerant of stroke order/direction mistakes, though, so if you do write characters in a non-standard way you should have pretty good luck with it. Unfortunately, we're not permitted to include our handwriting recognizer in the demo version of PlecoDict, but if you visit http://www.hwpen.net/download.htm you can download a demo version of a handwriting recognition program that uses the exact same recognition engine that we do - if that recognizes your handwriting accurately then our software should too.

 

[Anonymous]

The writing style is different if I draw lines. If a righthanded for example write the number 2 in Chinese, he will (I just guess) write the 2 lines from left to right, but I as a lefthanded will draw the lines from left to right. By doing so I have confused alwys some Chinese pocket translators.

Regarding the download sample: Does this programm also support Windows Mobile 5.0? (I mean the sample programm as well as you pleco Pocket PC edition)

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry made a mistake!

Righthanded: Drawing lines from left to right
Lefthanded: Drawing lines from right to left

 

[Jim]

If you are learning to write Chinese characters properly the direction of the strokes matters greatly and most but not all Chinese handwriting recognition software will look at stroke direction and stroke order and not just shapes.

The direction of strokes is important enough that you will find left handed people very rare in China. While as many lefties are born in China as anywhere else the education system trains it out of them, at least for writing. Chinese teachers can look at a student's handwritten character and know if they wrote the strokes in the correct direction. When you start to learn to recognize cursive Chinese handwriting you will also start to understand how important stroke direction is.

Sorry, but you have little choice but to train yourself to write the strokes in the correct direction. I would even go so far as to suggest you learn to write Chinese with your right hand as difficult as that would be for you in the beginning because even if you correct your stroke directions writing with your left hand will likely change your characters enough to make them difficult to read as you develop a more cursive style.

 

[Anonymous]

Before I train myself to write Chinese characters righthanded I prefer to stop to write any Chinese characters forever. If some people are so oldfashioned and can not accept Chinese characters written lefthanded then it is not my problem. I can also live without any Chinese greatly!

 

[mikelove]

Standard stroke direction doesn't really seem to favor lefties or righties - there are strokes that are drawn left-to-right but there are also several right-to-left strokes. The character ni3 'you' for example has three right-to-left strokes, two left-to-right and two vertical strokes (one of which ends in a right-to-left hook), and only favors righties in the sense that the left part of the character is drawn before the right. And actually for writing longer pieces of text Chinese is arguably better than English, since you can write vertically and right-to-left.

Anyway, we've (finally!) secured permission to include the handwriting recognizer in the demo version of PlecoDict, so if you can wait for the 1.0 release to be out (hopefully only another week or two) you can download it and see if it recognizes your handwriting well enough to be useful. Our software does indeed support Windows Mobile 5, I'm not sure whether or not HWPen does but if you wait for 1.0 you won't need to worry about HWPen.

 

[goulniky]

Before I train myself to write Chinese characters righthanded I prefer to stop to write any Chinese characters forever. If some people are so oldfashioned and can not accept Chinese characters written lefthanded then it is not my problem. I can also live without any Chinese greatly!

It doesn't sound like a very open-minded approach to me. If you were Chinese and complaining about the constraints the system puts on you, I could understand. But if you're trying to learn a language, Chinese or otherwise, you're also learning a culture, and it would seem obvious that you are prepared to accept different ways, nay, are eager to do things and look at the world differently rather than try and change their ways.
But in any event, the issue is not whether left-handed or not, I'm personally mixed, some things I do right-handed some left and I have no problem. Since you're learning to write Chinese you might as well learn to do it right from the outset, it'll make your life easier (if nothing else than being able to write in your hand as you talk to people).

 

[Jim]

Exactly, it is not a matter of not accepting left hand written characters, they just won't recognise them. If you use your left hand and carefully write them just a like a printed character people will recognise them. The problem arises as your ability and speed improves and your writing becomes more cursive, more hand written style. Chinese people trying to read left handed hand written characters would be like us trying to read a doctor's writing. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Writing Chinese with the left hand is no different than any other task you must learn in this righthanded (ie backward) world; you do it your own way and you do it wrong. At least a pen allows you to stroke away from your hand on the left to right horizontals; a brush by doing so would look strange (like putting the serifs in the wrong place on roman letters).

There is however nothing which will amaze a Chinese more than seeing a Westerner write characters left handed!