4 ms·

How do you learn writing? In Germany, as far as I know, everyone learns writing with foundation pens. You can search for images with „Schreiblernfüller“ to get

How do you learn writing? In Germany, as far as I know, everyone learns writing with foundation pens. You can search for images with „Schreiblernfüller“ to get an idea how they look.

MivLives 7y ago
Pencils mostly. It's not really common for kids to use pens outside of maybe drawing until later on at least not in the US.
ignoramous 7y ago
Not OP, but it is common in India for schools to ask kids to not use ball-points and use fountains instead.
- s_trumpet 7y ago
  As a counterpoint, my school banned fountain pens and ballpoints both - it was gel pens or bust.
AngryData 7y ago
In the US ive never used or even seen anyone use a fountain pen, although ive heard of enthusiasts for them here.
- biztos 7y ago
  I have a friend who's into fountain pens and for a while worked for a company that sells really nice ones. In that capacity he came to know some people who collect pens. You'd be amazed. One guy I heard of -- not-famous founder of a very famous brand -- was so into it he'd spent tens of millions building his collection, but outside the world of serious pen enthusiasts it wasn't "worth" anything near that much. A lot of the pens one collects are very limited editions but otherwise unremarkable: say a really good pen that would cost $500 but in a different color and they only make a thousand of them in that color and it costs $10,000. (Made-up numbers but $10K is not that much in the pen-collecting world.)
  - staz 7y ago
    https://xkcd.com/1095/ https://xkcd.com/1095/
- dublin 7y ago
  I have several fountain pens, and vastly prefer them to anything else for note-taking (even the pen for One?Note on my Surface Pro!) My favorite was made in 1947, and still works as well today as it did then. With care, it'll still work as well when it's 100, which is a fair fraction of how long I'm expected to last (at least statistically...)
- tristor 7y ago
  I predominantly write with a ballpoint pen, however as an affection when I write letters (which is more often than you might think) I always use quality stationary and a fountain pen. I'm very American. I know it's not commonplace, but in many ways that's exactly why I do it. There's several rather successful businesses in the US that only supply fountain pen users and collectors, probably the most well known is the Goulet Pen Company https://www.gouletpens.com/ https://www.gouletpens.com/
- gadders 7y ago
  I'm in the UK. They're not common, but you do occasionally see them. I have one that I mostly use because I was taught to write in the italic style [0] of cursive, so mine has an Italic squared-off nib. I don't use it every day, however. It cost me about £40, uses cartridges, and still manages to leak (blue, washable) ink on my fingers. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_script https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_script
biztos 7y ago
O/T for inventions but: I'm American and have lived in Germany a lot. In the 1970's in California, we learned to write with pencils. By the time I was in high school and used pens (mostly ballpoints, some felt-tipped) and also typewriters, I thought of myself as a pretty serious stationery nerd. Then I went to Germany and everybody at school used fountain pens, which I didn't even know how to fill! People probably thought I was an absolute barbarian, sticking to my ball-points. Then came university: in America, at the end of the 80's, you would be considered rather unserious if you didn't at least type up your assignments. Computers were an option but the minimum effort was to type things, libraries had lovely quiet-ish electronic typewriters for that purpose. And back I went to Germany, where -- at University! -- everybody was writing everything with those same damned Füller! And now, in 2020, at least the kids still are. Drop into any McPaper[0] and you will see a ton of cheap plastic fountain pens for the school kids. (Fortunately for me, the roller ball has also taken pretty firm hold, and people don't look at you funny anymore for not carrying around an ink bottle.) I have a really nice fountain pen, a Pelikan[1], and I almost never use it because I can't commit to thinking about the ink that much. In the end, the Germans out-nerded me. [0]: Really, there's a chain called McPaper: http://www.mcpaper.de http://www.mcpaper.de [1]: https://www.pelikan.com/pulse/Pulsar/en_US_INTL.Core.displayFilter.252412./fountain-pens https://www.pelikan.com/pulse/Pulsar/en_US_INTL.Core.display...

How do you learn writing? In Germany, as far as I know, everyone learns writing with foundation pens. You can search for images with „Schreiblernfüller“ to get an idea how they look.

MivLives 7y ago

Pencils mostly. It's not really common for kids to use pens outside of maybe drawing until later on at least not in the US.

ignoramous 7y ago

Not OP, but it is common in India for schools to ask kids to not use ball-points and use fountains instead.

s_trumpet 7y ago
As a counterpoint, my school banned fountain pens and ballpoints both - it was gel pens or bust.

AngryData 7y ago

In the US ive never used or even seen anyone use a fountain pen, although ive heard of enthusiasts for them here.

biztos 7y ago
I have a friend who's into fountain pens and for a while worked for a company that sells really nice ones. In that capacity he came to know some people who collect pens. You'd be amazed. One guy I heard of -- not-famous founder of a very famous brand -- was so into it he'd spent tens of millions building his collection, but outside the world of serious pen enthusiasts it wasn't "worth" anything near that much. A lot of the pens one collects are very limited editions but otherwise unremarkable: say a really good pen that would cost $500 but in a different color and they only make a thousand of them in that color and it costs $10,000. (Made-up numbers but $10K is not that much in the pen-collecting world.)
- staz 7y ago
  https://xkcd.com/1095/ https://xkcd.com/1095/
dublin 7y ago
I have several fountain pens, and vastly prefer them to anything else for note-taking (even the pen for One?Note on my Surface Pro!) My favorite was made in 1947, and still works as well today as it did then. With care, it'll still work as well when it's 100, which is a fair fraction of how long I'm expected to last (at least statistically...)
tristor 7y ago
I predominantly write with a ballpoint pen, however as an affection when I write letters (which is more often than you might think) I always use quality stationary and a fountain pen. I'm very American. I know it's not commonplace, but in many ways that's exactly why I do it. There's several rather successful businesses in the US that only supply fountain pen users and collectors, probably the most well known is the Goulet Pen Company https://www.gouletpens.com/ https://www.gouletpens.com/
gadders 7y ago
I'm in the UK. They're not common, but you do occasionally see them. I have one that I mostly use because I was taught to write in the italic style [0] of cursive, so mine has an Italic squared-off nib. I don't use it every day, however. It cost me about £40, uses cartridges, and still manages to leak (blue, washable) ink on my fingers. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_script https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_script

biztos 7y ago

O/T for inventions but: I'm American and have lived in Germany a lot. In the 1970's in California, we learned to write with pencils. By the time I was in high school and used pens (mostly ballpoints, some felt-tipped) and also typewriters, I thought of myself as a pretty serious stationery nerd. Then I went to Germany and everybody at school used fountain pens, which I didn't even know how to fill! People probably thought I was an absolute barbarian, sticking to my ball-points. Then came university: in America, at the end of the 80's, you would be considered rather unserious if you didn't at least type up your assignments. Computers were an option but the minimum effort was to type things, libraries had lovely quiet-ish electronic typewriters for that purpose. And back I went to Germany, where -- at University! -- everybody was writing everything with those same damned Füller! And now, in 2020, at least the kids still are. Drop into any McPaper[0] and you will see a ton of cheap plastic fountain pens for the school kids. (Fortunately for me, the roller ball has also taken pretty firm hold, and people don't look at you funny anymore for not carrying around an ink bottle.) I have a really nice fountain pen, a Pelikan[1], and I almost never use it because I can't commit to thinking about the ink that much. In the end, the Germans out-nerded me. [0]: Really, there's a chain called McPaper: http://www.mcpaper.de http://www.mcpaper.de [1]: https://www.pelikan.com/pulse/Pulsar/en_US_INTL.Core.displayFilter.252412./fountain-pens https://www.pelikan.com/pulse/Pulsar/en_US_INTL.Core.display...