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Comment by Unearned5161 | Hacker News Reader

Ok I did one letter, from a woman in 1814 writing to James Monroe (then Secretary of State) asking for a passport to go to Scotland to get her late brother's property. What a trip! So enjoyable to get into the flow once you've "synchronized" with the persons handwriting. Furthermore, due to the fact that you're reading and re-writing word for word of whatever you're transcribing, the stories you end up reading have tremendous memory-stick. This is not surprising, considering that you are dedicating an inordinate amount of time per page, but it's a welcome side effect when you try and recollect.

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> Furthermore, due to the fact that you're reading and re-writing word for word of whatever you're transcribing, the stories you end up reading have tremendous memory-stick. This is not surprising, considering that you are dedicating an inordinate amount of time per page, but it's a welcome side effect when you try and recollect.

This was something I enjoyed when I decided to learn a language by translating short stories. (Edit: Of course, you have to choose an author whose diction you respect. Your unfamiliarity with the target language encourages you to mull over the author's use of diction and the nuances the author is trying to convey, and then find appropriate diction in English. This means you spend a long time immersed in the imagery.)

What a brilliant idea. I've had learning to read French on my list for a while now, I'm going to try transcription as another way at it.

I wish this technique worked for me. I can transcribe something verbatim and then have absolutely no idea what I've written - I have to go back and read it to actually parse the text.

That’s not uncommon. I was the same way back when I took an actual typing class. The part of my brain used for storage/recall just seems to go to sleep when doing the whole transcription stage. Maybe it was a mental thing realizing it was just a task and no actual interest in the content other than accomplishing a task vs doing it something I had a vested interest???

That's my whole school life. Bonus difficulty as it was pen and paper, my writing sucked enough that I couldn't read back a bunch of it. I also couldn't read half of the cursive in this project, I'm really bad at that.

It worked better when I realized I could stop taking most notes.

I love the idea of "synchronizing" with someone’s handwriting

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