世論 What Japan Thinks

I want someday learn how to write Japanese well, as do most Japanese themselves, according to the results of this recent survey from iShare into handwriting.

Demographics

Between the 27th of August and the 1st of September 2009 545 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.5% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 29.2% in their thirties, and 36.1% in their forties.

Having said that I want to learn how to write Japanese neatly, perhaps first I should actually learn how to write in English, as I do have a horrendous scrawl, which does become legible to a degree if I slow down.

When it comes to making notes at meetings or sketching ideas out, etc, I nearly always use paper first, however, as even though I have a reasonably good typing speed, I can write and listen at the same time during meetings, and for ideas, underlining things on paper, inserting words, expanding concepts always seems far more dynamic on paper, and easier to follow than just raw, perfect text.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever taken lessons in penmanship or calligraphy? (Sample size=545)

	All	Male N=297	Female N=248
Calligraphy only (to SQ1)	32.5%	29.6%	35.9%
Penmanship only (to SQ1)	2.9%	2.4%	3.6%
Both calligraphy and penmanship (to SQ1)	9.4%	4.7%	14.9%
Neither calligraphy nor penmanship	55.2%	63.3%	45.6%

Q1SQ1: Have you ever quit your lessons in penmanship or calligraphy? (Sample size=244)

	All	Male N=109	Female N=135
Yes (to SQ2)	95.1%	95.4%	94.8%
No	4.9%	4.6%	5.2%

Q1SQ2: Since quitting, has your penmanship or calligraphy got worse? (Sample size=232)

	All	Male N=104	Female N=128
Yes	56.5%	59.6%	53.9%
No	43.5%	40.4%	46.1%

Q2: How confident are you that your handwriting is neat? (Sample size=545)

	All	Male N=297	Female N=248
Very confident	2.4%	1.3%	3.6%
Somewhat confident	14.3%	10.4%	19.0%
Somewhat lacking in confidence	36.0%	32.7%	39.9%
Not confident at all	47.3%	55.6%	37.5%

Q3: Would you like to be able to write more neatly? (Sample size=545)

	All	Male N=297	Female N=248
Really want to write more neatly (to SQ)	13.9%	12.8%	15.3%
Perhaps want to write more neatly (to SQ)	51.7%	49.5%	54.4%
OK as I am right now	34.3%	37.7%	30.2%

Q3SQ: Which method would you most like to use to write more neatly? (Sample size=358)

	All	Male N=185	Female N=173
No particular method, just take care to write neatly	39.4%	41.1%	37.6%
Correspondence course	15.1%	13.5%	16.8%
Use penmanship game software	13.7%	15.1%	12.1%
Attend penmanship class	12.8%	13.0%	12.7%
Copy someone’s skilled hand	9.2%	8.1%	10.4%
Use penmanship book	8.9%	8.1%	9.8%
Other	0.8%	1.1%	0.6%

Q4: When you need to write something down, which method do you most often use? (Sample size=545)

	All	Male N=297	Female N=248
Computer	69.0%	76.8%	59.7%
Handwriting	21.3%	16.2%	27.4%
Mobile phone	9.7%	7.1%	12.9%