hide 0 Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Are you left or right handed? I am left handed, I don't know many other people who are. Maybe few in Japan. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted July 25, 2003 Share Posted July 25, 2003 Ambidextrous where was my voting selection? Link to post Share on other sites
zebedee 1 Posted July 25, 2003 Share Posted July 25, 2003 You don't really exist, so no selection Link to post Share on other sites
oblivion 5 Posted July 26, 2003 Share Posted July 26, 2003 There seems to be a "not many Japanese are left handed" thing going on, but I read somewhere that the stats are about the same as other places. Is it just under 10% of the popularion left handed or something like that? Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted July 28, 2003 Share Posted July 28, 2003 I have some Japanese friends who are left handed. I had an interesting conversation with one of them a while back - he said that when he was a young child learning to write, his parents insisted that he write with their right hand to "cure" them of their left-handedness. They gave up after a while, much to their shame. Link to post Share on other sites
danz 0 Posted July 28, 2003 Share Posted July 28, 2003 I am even harder to classify than kamo... I write and do most mundane activities with my left, but athletically, I am right-handed...strange... danz Link to post Share on other sites
base40 0 Posted July 29, 2003 Share Posted July 29, 2003 Left handed writer, but some sports I do right handed. Mad! Link to post Share on other sites
Chancey 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Left handed writer. left handed mind. bat right(baseball). surf and board goofy. eat right (beers in my left). tv clicker right (again, beers in my left). My sister in-law is one of those "cured" Japanese lefties. I wonder if her parents secretly scorn my left handedness. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 I'm becoming increasingly left-handed after dinging my right shoulder with various wheelboards. Shoulders are actually rather important in the grand scheme of things. Now that I can't really scratch my back with my right hand, I'm finding out just how much potential my left hand has. I've heard about left-handed people being bullied into giving it up in Japan. Completely indefensible behaviour... Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Can you throw stones like a boy yet, O11? Link to post Share on other sites
jared 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 It wasnt long ago that left handedness was a bad thing in the west. Did u know sinister means left handed. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 At a price, scouser, at a price. Ow! Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 There are also traditional prejudices against left-handed people in the West, as can be observed from the Latin word for right "dexter" and the word for left "sinister". Funnily enough, some say that left-handed fencers have faster reactions, making them more "dexterous". In Japanese archery (kyudo), everyone is right-handed. Someone told me this is so that no-one turns their back on the Emperor. What's it like writing Japanese left-handed people? It's one reason I've heard Japanese kids are discouraged from being left-handed. Link to post Share on other sites
danz 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 my dear grandma was reminded every day by a slap on the knuckles with a ruler not to use her left hand...but that was in the old country.... danz Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Quote: Originally posted by danz: I ... do most mundane activities with my left, but athletically, I am right-handed...strange... what is choking the chicken, mundane or athletic? Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Quote: Originally posted by NoFakie: What's it like writing Japanese left-handed people? It's one reason I've heard Japanese kids are discouraged from being left-handed. I could understand this argument for western writing more than kanji. A lefty would drag their hand through the ink while writng left to right. Writing kanji top to bottom, however, would allow ink time to dry... Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderbird2 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 What is/was the reason for wanting to "cure" left handedness anyway? Link to post Share on other sites
slow 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 If you are left handed, you can't learn Japanese caligraphy. So you have to be right handed. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Miteyak It's something to do with the way the strokes curve and pressure is applied, especially in calligraphy. It could all be nonsense of course, or just that current teaching methods are so right-hand centric that left-handed people are put at a disadvantage. As for your up-down as opposed to left-right theory, most individual kanji are written in a left to right, top to bottom manner, which I suppose prevents righties from smudging the left parts of the characters that are written first. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted July 31, 2003 Share Posted July 31, 2003 Although with 'real' Japanese caligraphy, you don't rest your mitt on the page anyway... Like all good things, s'all in the wrist. But then you mightn't be able to see what you were doing as your hand would obstruct your vision... But then, it's all in the wabi and the sabi and not a strictly visual thing anyway... Oh God, I don't know! Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Quote: Originally posted by Thunderbird2: What is/was the reason for wanting to "cure" left handedness anyway? it nots just here that they were out to cure, I know that in the UK and NZ, left handers were forced to use the right. My UK friend is only 28 so it was recently too, so he writes with his right, but his a naturally lefty so his writing is consequently a scribble. Right is "dexter" in Latin and left is "sinister" so that left has evil connotations and the devil in in your hand, etc etc etc and puritans just love cracking on that stuff. Plus its means everyone is the same and uniform. In Japan, school kids absolutely must be equal. School unifrom, gym shoes, hair colour Look at the ski trip schoolers, all wearing the exact ski outfit and the exact skiis, regardless if you have your own gear, you have to use the hire stuff and be the same as everyone else. Link to post Share on other sites
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