Saturday, July 12, 2014

Choose Either Way;

(posted; Etymology page)
The letter paper and the envelope is mine. You might notice from the lines that we have both types of writing "Vertical" and "Horizontal" way. Although I have almost all written down topics for Etymology page, a foreigner's interest I found on TV made me reconsider about these two versions of writing direction.


*Japanese Paper and graduation certificate*
The foreigner was talking that he saw a business man reading a paper in the morning crowded train and found that the different direction of the letters gave him fresh image. (upper right is the TV program; lower right is the graduation certificate)

*Elementary School's Japanese Textbook*
This is my next neighbor's forth grade elementary-school boy's Japanese textbook. 
I believe it's easier reading Japanese vertically not horizontally as most of the novels are so.  This is my calligraphy pages link. There aren't many horizontal works compared to vertical ones. Haha, just a personal opinion.

 I was fascinated and didn't take it for granted to find this function in WORD at first :-) 
I'm NOT sure if it is beneficial fact for Japanese (language-wise) in designing. And I wonder if 'by any chance' there are any trouble or not for other languages which have only horizontal way.  

Linking this post to Our World Tuesday;

Thank you very much for stopping by;


19 comments:

  1. how neat that word has that option! i find your letters and writing direction fascinating! so artful!

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  2. Miyako, thank you for sharing your writing styles & directions. I always thought Japanese was written vertical. Have a great weekend!

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  3. Hello Miyako!:) It's a revelation to me that Japanese can be written in both directions.I think your lettering is both creative and beautiful.:)

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  4. Hello Miyako, I had no idea that the Japanese writing could be done both vertically and horizontal. It is neat that the WORD program allows both too. Thanks for sharing, it is always nice to learn something new. Have a happy day and weekend!

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  5. Now that I think Japanese is very flexible as we can write both vertically and horizontally. Newspapers are in vertical format but newspaper websites are in horizontal.
    I wonder if other languages can go both ways as well.
    Such interesting post ! Have a great weekend, Miyako san!

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  6. Dear Miyako.

    Have seen the vertical and horizontal writing and this is very interesting. Love the beautiful and creative script. Thanks for sharing this.
    Hope you are enjoying the weekend
    hugs
    Carolyn

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  7. Dearest Miyako,
    Oh sure, Word has that option and especially this is used for publishing as all backs of a book are vertical, cross word puzzles are both horizontal and vertical and many magazine covers place some or all text vertical around their cover photo.
    Guess for the mind it doesn't matter really. But general pages are printed left to right.
    Hugs and happy Sunday evening to you!
    Mariette

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  8. As you may know, Chinese is traditionally written vertically too. I used to have so much trouble reading Chinese novels in school as I find myself reading the same line over and over again!

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  9. °º。✿⊱
    A escrita japonesa é como uma poesia... vertical ou horizontal... é sempre artística.

    Bom domingo! Boa semana!
    Beijinhos.

    º°。❤彡

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  10. I had always thought that Japanese and Chinese were both written vertically and I imagined it would be even more difficult to learn to read any language that was written horizontally.

    But I am one of those spoiled Americans who is not able to speak any other language besides English. I really wish I could and I so admire your being able to write and speak your second language so beautifully.

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  11. I guess I'm the last to know that Japanese is mostly written vertically. I'm glad you have that option in Word. I can't imagine English written this way, but seems to work well for your language. Thank you for sharing the unique parts of your culture with us!

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  12. This made me think, why is English always horizontal when Asian languages can be written either way. I wonder if it would be hard to get used to one way when you are very used to the other.

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  13. Very informative and creative post and photos for OWT ~ thanks, xoxo

    I have seen English written vertically and read from top to bottom ~ especially poetry ~ and of course horizontally it is always read from left right. I find myself many times though reading from the back to the front so must have some Asian influence ~ huh?

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  14. To Cynthia; My husband said that he never thought about one way is easier than the other p;) One of my friend said the same thing. I think it is my personal preference level. Or maybe only visual sense. I SO appreciate your comment who has long teaching experience, xoxo Miyako*

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  15. To Carol; Oh, than you so much that letting me know that even English has vertical way of writing, I wish I could see them p;) And so sorry for my bad reading ability that I couldn't get the meaning what you said about 'from back to front'. We read ours vertically from left to right, and novels should be opened from left to right.
    I really appreciate your comment, my friend, xoxo Miyako*

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  16. This is very interesting, Miyako! Do you know if any other languages have both vertical and horizontal ways of writing, beside Japanese?

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  17. What lovely paper!

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  18. I never realised there was an option of vertical or horizontal!

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  19. Very interesting! I am happy to be able to learn something new every day. (At my age something "new" is actually something "forgotten," but not in this case!) Thanks for visiting my blog in my absence.

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