Esperanto behaves just like standard English, for pronouns.

Combined singular/plural you, separate he/she, non-gendered they.

There was another thread on this forum, some time back, to discuss this topic. Bottom line - I think it doesn't really matter which system a language uses. The many different systems used by the languages of the world proves that there are many different ways of transmitting these meanings, all of which work just fine.

Regarding alphabets - you could argue that it is "elitist" to expect someone to read a foreign alphabet. Yet you seem to expect people to have some understanding of math, and Greek letters are used abundantly in math and science. I would expect any person with a good education in math, science, or engineering to be familiar with at least half of the letters in the Greek alphabet. My degrees are in mechanical engineering, and looking at the Greek alphabet, I can't see a single letter that didn't appear in some formula or other at some point in my education, whether it was in a math class or a science class.

Regarding cursive - I hope you did not mean to imply in your answer that reading cursive is an "elite" skill, reserved only for people interested in languages. Cursive handwriting is everywhere, and someone unable to read it will run into serious problems in many situations. As a child, before I learned cursive, I keenly felt this problem. I disliked that I was not able to read (fluently) things that adults had written.

Genjix, while your line of work might have no relevance whatsoever to writing physically in quick/cursive/whatever form, that doesn't mean cursive is useless or understanding it is useless. After all, we're not all making games (I know many of us would like to be, but that's beside the point ).

Because of things like this, being able to understand cursive is regarded as a basic skill. A very small percentage of people may take into account that you might not get the whole cursive crud, but there's a lot of people who honestly think that those who can't read their writing are nothing more than idiots - there are also many who expect you to be able to read their writing straight away, and if you can't, then it'll inconvenience them (which is admittedly preferable to getting stuck with a bum-head of a person who is obsessed with cursive).

Anyway, I can think of a parallel to this - when you were trying to help before about some technology related topic, and trying to guide ebook users/potential buyers on the right path, you were trying to hammer in how important it is to know exactly what your thing is capable in terms of drm etc. In a way, this is the same, as being able to understand human writing is a thing people take for granted and assume others can do outside of square print form.

Regarding pronouns, I share the same irritation , except to a more radical extent where I would be happier with a plurality neutral system (e.g. everything like with vi). I'm not too worried by the gender pronouns though, since they actually do add capabilities to the language rather than impair it - if you need gender neutrality for 3rd person singular, just use "tiu" or something. In the end, it's a mixture between what the basics are for comprehension and how much you can add without impairing the language I think, otherwise every language would be happy with the same basic pronoun sets.

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Anyway, learning how to read basic cursive structures should technically be passive anyway for most people, surely you've had enough letters or christmas cards from relatives who write like that, or had a note from a coworker/friend/whatsoever, and had to decipher it?

I find it strange for an adult or anyone teenage and above to not be able to read cursive, as cruel and harsh as that sounds. Once again, perhaps past experiences based on people with crap handwriting like myself might be the problem. And kids, I mean crap as in the gambling game. Oh wait, that's 18+ too isn't it....

My children go to school in the USA and are expected to learn cursive writing as part of the general elementary skill-set like math and spelling. Whether they use it or not later is up to them but forcing people to "print" does not mean a person is more legible. I have to deal with people's handwriting on forms at work and I can tell you that some people's block-print text is totally undreadable!

Rather than banish cursive, I *wish* I could write caligraphically. I did learn but as a left-hander, ink pens did not agree with me and I ended up making a mess! I love seeing non-Latin caligraphy, arabic, Chinese, Japanese etc. It's truly art.

Ironchef:My children go to school in the USA and are expected to learn cursive writing as part of the general elementary skill-set like math and spelling. Whether they use it or not later is up to them but forcing people to "print" does not mean a person is more legible. I have to deal with people's handwriting on forms at work and I can tell you that some people's block-print text is totally undreadable!

Rather than banish cursive, I *wish* I could write caligraphically. I did learn but as a left-hander, ink pens did not agree with me and I ended up making a mess! I love seeing non-Latin caligraphy, arabic, Chinese, Japanese etc. It's truly art.

Latin text can be very smooth on the eyes too. Like Spencerian and Copperplate

People find things easy to read if they are used to reading it. Have you ever tried to read long passages set in gothic blackletter? Many people would have difficulties, not because it is inherently unreadable but simply because they're not used to reading it. Yet in the past in Germany people found it more readable than Latin script because that was what they were used to reading.

Since Genjix isn't used to reading cursive it's understandable that he finds it difficult to read. If he's not exposed to it in his daily life and sees no reason to add it to his skills, I've got no problem with that. I don't think it reflects a poor education, just different priorities.

However, as people have been pointing out, cursive makes sense when writing long passages by hand. If you are going to indulge in letter-writing with others then chances are you're going to come across people writing in cursive. It's rather unfair to demand everyone stop writing in cursive simply because you haven't been exposed to it. Ironically, if you exchange letters with people writing in cursive that will give you the exposure you need to be able to read it. Best to start with a pen-pal with good handwriting, though!

One last thing: just because a person block-prints doesn't mean their writing is more readable. I've encountered some absolutely unintelligible block printing in my time.

Alciona:People find things easy to read if they are used to reading it. Have you ever tried to read long passages set in gothic blackletter? Many people would have difficulties, not because it is inherently unreadable but simply because they're not used to reading it. Yet in the past in Germany people found it more readable than Latin script because that was what they were used to reading.

Good point you made there, mate. And think of Roman time when no lower case exist or Carolinian script. It really is just a matter of accustomedness.

Historically speaking, the cursive (or as more explicitly put by British, handwriting) is a system designed for, well, writing with hand! The minor adjustments helped the flow when you are writing a long passage. Though I am not sure, but I can almost guess that writing in cursive will be more efficient than printing. The printing, on the other hand, is to demand human hand to imitate inscriptors or pressing machines.

BTW, I read Genjix' link, and I do think that another skill, that is TXTing, might also come to become another important skill to master, just like cursive writing, or what typing was. It's important to get used to enough of the new writing methods.

LyzTyphone:BTW, I read Genjix' link, and I do think that another skill, that is TXTing, might also come to become another important skill to master, just like cursive writing, or what typing was. It's important to get used to enough of the new writing methods.

Absolutely! I remember when I was at high school and touch-typing classes were considered girly and only useful for training to be a secretary. Now with the proliferation of computers it's considered a basic and essential skill. Communications methods change so people will always need to acquire new skills to keep up.