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283 points IdealeZahlen | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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wduquette ◴[] No.42139909[source]
I left college with a math degree and a profound antipathy for weird cursive symbols. The one that nearly killed me was the Greek "xi". I couldn't pronounce it, and I couldn't write it with any fluency, and in some of the classes I took it was everywhere.
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anyfoo ◴[] No.42140531[source]
I encounter ξ (xi), and also ζ (zeta) a lot. Honestly, when I write them out by hand, I just make a "wild squiggly line" for ξ and a "simplified squiggly line" for ζ.

If I write it out by hand, it's most likely just for my eyes anyway, and I'd type it out on a computer if I'd want others to have a look at it. But even if I gave someone else my handwritten note, I think from context it would be pretty clear what the "squiggly lines" are supposed to be.

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1. asyx ◴[] No.42159364[source]
You guys do know that Greek speakers write those by hand all the time, right? It’s really not that difficult…
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2. anyfoo ◴[] No.42188762[source]
"All the time", yeah. Relatively to that, I have to write individual greek characters very rarely, as they are not part of my usual script. Almost never, compared to a greek person.

The same applies to the scripts used by e.g. Chinese, Arabian, and Korean speakers.

So naturally I am not a "fluent" writer of ξ and ζ, and since I virtually always write those characters in isolation instead of as part of words, it's a different mode of practice even when I do use them.

It's the same on the keyboard, by the way. My keyboard does not have ξ or ζ keys, it's all special.