I frequently find myself admiring examples of extraordinary handwriting by Thais in mundane situations ... grocery lists, filling in forms, letters, etc.

If you examine some of these specimens, you will see that the characters are extremely small, but maintain the serifs, embellishments [or whatever they are correctly called] and style and shape. Quite pretty to see from afar as well, whether you can read and understand the script or not (I can, for the most part)

We have a niece living with us who is studying Japansese at a local mahawittiyalai and she has expressed her love of learning and practicing the Japanese character sets (which she does endlessly, sitting in front of the TV)

And it is not just writing Thai or Japanese.

Today, buying a cake at S&P, the clerk quickly wrote an absolutely tiny & perfect "Happy Birthday" with a tube of sugar-goo. I complimented her work and she seemed to appreciate it. My wife writes English in cursive AND block letters better than 99% of farangs I know.

My guess is that there is a lot of drilling at an early age. Or is it an Asian trait?

-NG

I think so, I've seen plenty of mens' handwriting that is as precise as you have described.

Those old enough (or with parents old enough) might well remember the Palmer method of teaching handwriting which resulted in absolutely perfect cursive writing. So, such handwriting did exist in the west once as well. Not anymore

I have on many occasions been complemented on how 'beautiful' my Thai handwriting is, this is simply because i am more aware while writing it and when i was learning i had it drilled in to me to make the script perfect.

However my English (native) handwriting is awful but then i dont even think when i'm writing it.

You saw a Thai make a shopping list ??? Unbelievable. Any form of written list would be a miracle in my tgf's hands.

But to your point, I once saw a graduated chart of Thai writing as kids do it, then teens, then adults, very fascinating. It showed how the writing gets more stylized with time and tends to abbreviate its form. I have one friend who is very much a hi-so lady and anything she writes exhibits beautiful penmanship I must say. I see it as commensurate with speaking beautiful proper educated Thai vs speaking street Thai.

And last thing....

If you've ever taught Thai kids and watched them sketch lines onto paper for properly formed letters and lists and diagrams, you know they have to make it perfect and beautiful. This is a BIG cultural difference vs me, where I say 'just get the info down.' This then segways into the whole idea of getting the job done and trying vs making mistakes and not looking good. We value the result, they tend to value the look and the process. It's not a rule written in stone, but I'm sure you get what I'm saying.