The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by emmelaich on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @08:37PM (#41794359)

I've often wonder why this isn't a big problem for right-to-left languages.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by resoluteteeth on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @09:17PM (#41794593)

It's only a problem if you rest your hand on the paper while writing rather than holding your hand above the paper and writing with your whole arm which i suspect used to be the norm in most places.

Also in languages written vertically and then right to left it would be less of an issue because the ink would have more time to dry before you get to the left of a given character.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by talldatethrow on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @09:12PM (#41794556)

I'm also left handed and this was never an issue for me. You hold the pencil out from your fingers thus your hand is sitting slightly below the line that is being written, traveling over unused paper constantly.

Only people that do that weird claw thing have that problem.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by Teever on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @11:17PM (#41795147)

The trade off is that you have less visibility of the letters you just wrote, which can be annoying sometimes and lead to spelling mistakes.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by JodieBenitez on Thursday October 10, 2024 @04:35AM (#41796839)

Yes, that's why we did the "weird claw thing" aforementioned.

Anyway, no more handwriting these days...

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by portaouflop on Thursday October 10, 2024 @02:27AM (#41796123)

I did the weird claw thing, worked for me

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by jstanley on Thursday October 10, 2024 @03:49AM (#41796567)

What's the claw thing?

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by beAbU on Thursday October 10, 2024 @05:25AM (#41797102)

Some lefties look as if they are wrapping half their bodies around the pen/cil when writing.

I also do not write like this, smudging fresh ink as I write has never been an issue for me.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by greedylizard on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @09:13PM (#41794571)

As a child I solved this problem by rotating my paper 90° to the right and writing “down”. Still do it til this day.

Although it gets awkward when someone wants to hold the paper for me while I sign. I have to gently tug it away from them so I can turn it.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by sova on Thursday October 10, 2024 @03:18AM (#41796402)

You can write "down" with your left because immediately above your hand on the page there's no hand to "drag behind." I had to think about your sentence for a while. (It might just mean I'm not very bright.)

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by fm2606 on Friday October 11, 2024 @07:14AM (#41808421)

I turn my paper about 45 degrees.

I have the same problem when people want to hold the paper for me to sign.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by scyzoryk_xyz on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @09:31PM (#41794648)

Fountain pens are fun too in the places that did those

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by wslh on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @09:52PM (#41794730)

Just imagine what it's like to spend three years doing technical drawing in high school using Rotring pens [1], not to mention practicing calligraphy based on IRAM/ISO standards [2][3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotring

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instituto_Argentino_de_Normali...

[3] https://youtu.be/znrD1DjYqrE?si=Z7RsTatVCw3OKTdT&t=169

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by ClassyJacket on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @10:41PM (#41794961)

You should solve this problem by simply writing every page backwards from end to beginning.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by seanmcdirmid on Thursday October 10, 2024 @12:12AM (#41795427)

If I had to do it again, I would have learned to write with my right hand due to occlusion. It gets worse if you try to learn how to write in Chinese (at least in modern orientations). I think the reason I became a programmer is just because keyboards were so liberating for me.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by ensocode on Thursday October 10, 2024 @02:33AM (#41796162)

Same here. Totally agree with this!

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by Freak_NL on Thursday October 10, 2024 @06:55AM (#41797554)

For Asian scripts like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, a mechanical pencil works wonders, especially for ideograms. Get one of those auto-rotating ones like the Kurutoga and there is nothing hard specifically for left-handed folk.

Or indeed, use vertical writing, which is particularly well-suited for left-handed use.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by mpreda on Thursday October 10, 2024 @12:59AM (#41795672)

I'm right handed; when I experimented with writing with my left hand, I discovered that it's much easier to write "in mirror", right to left, using mirrored cursive characters. (also slanted in mirror)

Solves the problem with the hand overlapping the fresh writing and produces some funky-looking text.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by setopt on Thursday October 10, 2024 @02:34AM (#41796170)

You should learn Arabic, then you can write in the other direction and watch the right-handed normies struggle with this :)

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by arictial on Thursday October 10, 2024 @03:00AM (#41796303)

That's the reason I write my signature from right to left, starting from the last letter.

It's weirdly left slanted but actually better than my normal handwriting.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by fiftyacorn on Thursday October 10, 2024 @03:31AM (#41796463)

This was one of the reasons kids werent allowed to be left handed in the old days - you used fountain pens so it would smudge the ink

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by Doxin on Friday October 11, 2024 @03:42AM (#41807222)

These days they make left-handed fountain pen ink. It dries much quicker to avoid smudging.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by tslater2006 on Thursday October 10, 2024 @04:19AM (#41796736)

I struggled with this through highschool. Pencil and gel pens were the worst. I never learned to write with my paper tilted like some lefties. I write just like a mirror image of a right hander, which lead to a lot of smudging and having to rewrite papers etc

This change my sophomore year in English class when my teacher told me a trick! Place a sticky note on the side of your hand that rests on the paper. No more smudging!

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by anonu on Thursday October 10, 2024 @07:01AM (#41797603)

You should learn Arabic: problem solved.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by effdee on Thursday October 10, 2024 @07:18AM (#41797695)

I used to have the same problem. Switching from pencils and pens to keyboards fixed it for me. :)

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by FinnKuhn on Thursday October 10, 2024 @09:44AM (#41798742)

> Also ring binders were a pain in the ass.

My suggestion would be to just turn them around so the spiral is on the right side

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by vibrio on Friday October 11, 2024 @05:37AM (#41807888)

Yup. I tried that and got scolded by teachers because the lines are all off (big margin at the bottom. Thin red line on the wrong side. ) I tried to get the pads with the spiral at the top- that works.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by grahamm on Thursday October 10, 2024 @06:14PM (#41804113)

Always have blue ink on the side of my hand where I have dragged my hand across the page and through my writing. Fountain pens were particularly messy.

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Re:The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016) by vibrio on Friday October 11, 2024 @05:34AM (#41807870)

Yes. And that crappy erasable ink that flourished in the 80s. It was a mess.

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