Young girls, old women practice writing

Once, Thanh’s boyfriend wanted to borrow her notebook to copy a lesson, but she didn’t agree. The two quarrelled and broke up. The reason was that Thanh didn’t want her boyfriend to see her handwriting.

Teacher Dang Mai Dong.

Thanh decided to enroll in a handwriting training class. It sounds strange because such classes are organised for children at the age of 5-6 who are about to enter primary schools. However, the class of teacher Dang Mai Dong in the Nam Thanh Cong apartment block, Dong Da district, Hanoi attracts many adults.

The oldest classmate is To Thi Dieu Lan, 60, from Hang Giay street, Hanoi.

“When she applied for this class, I was afraid to accept her because she was old. Her eyes get dim and her hands are unsteady. But she said she was determined to study to teach her grandson,” said Mai.

“I can learn English so I can learn how to write nicely,” the old women told her.

Mai Dong’s class has students of all ages, from kids who are about to enter primary school to students, office employees, and retired people. Each of them comes to the class for their own goal.

Mrs. Lan’s target is to teach her grandson. Hoai, from the northern province of Ninh Binh, wants to show off for her boyfriend. Some students want to have good handwriting to write job applications.

“We are asked to submit handwritten applications at all companies. It is said ‘handwriting shows personality’. My handwriting looks like that of a child, so I had to join this class,” a student named Huong said.

There is a couple, the woman is pregnant. They practiced handwriting to teach their child in the future. Some teachers from far provinces like Gia Lai, Quang Nam and Lai Chau have attended the class.

Learning writing through verses and images

“Perhaps my class attracts many people because I teach writing through images and verses. It is not difficult to write nicely if you know the ‘diseases’ of handwriting to deal with them,” said teacher Mai Dong.

She pointed out 12 ‘diseases’ of handwriting, for example: m with incoherent strokes shows lack of solidarity, r which looks down shows lack of confidence, l which is curved is called ‘hunchbacked disease’, etc.

She divides similar uppercases in groups, named wave, sea nail, young moon, musical notes and others. The name of each group shows the character of letters in the group. For example, the musical note group including p, b, r, d. The first strokes of these letters are in the shapes of musical notes.

She also uses verses and games in teaching to make her lessons interesting and easy to remember.

The teacher said that today many youngsters don’t use handwriting but send text messages and emails. But no matter how modern society get, handwriting will still exist.

VietNamNet/VNE