I’ve been relearning how to write hiragana and katakana by hand, trying to follow native handwriting instead of the “computer like” style a lot of learners (including me) end up with. One thing I started paying attention to is the idea that each kana is written as if it sits inside an invisible square, even when you’re writing on plain paper.
That makes sense to me for normal kana. If I write ホテル, I can kind of imagine three equal spaces: ホ・テ・ル, each inside its own box, but I’m unsure what happens with small kana like っッ, ゃゅょ, or the small vowels in loanwords (ディ, ドゥ, ティ). When you handwrite something like きって, しゅう, ティッシュ, how are you thinking about spacing?
Do i imagine a rectangle, half the size of the normal square, and put it in between two normal squares?
I’m curious how this is actually taught in Japan (especially in early writing education or calligraphy). Is there a standard way to think about it, or is it something people just develop a feel for?
If anyone knows of videos from Japanese sources that talk about this from a handwriting perspective, I’d love to see them.
by matborat