Mutsumi no

Scripts & Codes

My interest in this started when I was a kid and I made a simple English cipher to write my diary in. Codes and scripts are a lot quicker to learn than languages, so they're perfect to dabble in.

Although the best use for writing systems is writing their respective language(s), they can be learned and used for other things, such as singing along to karaoke, reading signs, and writing English in a secret code.

One unexpected use I've discovered is learning scripts to get better at Geoguessr. People looking to improve their scores will learn the script to be able to distinguish which part of the world they're in, and pinpoint locations based on signs. The community has created a lot of guides and quizzes, which are helpful even if you don't play Geoguessr. I've been using their resources to help refresh my knowledge of Bengali, and I'm hoping to move on to other writing systems soon.

More resources can be found on the subreddit r/Geoguessr.

Recently I've also discovered shorthand, particularly Orthic, which uses the same spelling as English. Phonetic systems are certainly more common, but I've put a lot of effort into mastering English spelling, and I don't want to learn how words are phonetically spelled in a different accent. I don't require shorthand to transcribe meetings at high speed, so I've avoided more complicated systems like Pitman and Gregg which takes months of focused study. I'm learning it mostly as a curiosity, with the hopes to get good enough to be able to use it in creative writing.

I settled on Orthic, and so far it has been great--looks beautiful and doesn't take too long to learn. However, it's woefully lacking in good resources, and the learner's manual basically presents the entire alphabet and asks you to go learn that by yourself. Therefore, I've made my own course, with reading and writing exercises after every few characters. If you're interested, check out the lessons in the sidebar.

Another cool thing I've started learning is Braille. It all started with this cool youtube video that taught me the entire alphabet and numbers in 15 minutes through some very clever mnemonics.

To practice I've been using Hadley which has flashcards, braille to English reading exercises, and writing exercises where you tap the dots needed for each letter.