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When the regular student is hearing a lecture he needs to write the lecturer's
words very fast. So many of them are shortening the words (like smb.) and
sentences but after the lecture they can still understand what they have
written (usually).

Is it possible to shorten Japanese words or there are another ways to write
complicated symbols fast?
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learning handwriting abbreviations
Are there ways to write Japanese fast (like shortening the words)?
# 行書 & 草書 (semi-cursive and cursive writings)

行書【ぎょうしょ】 (semi-cursive script) is similar to English 'handwriting' style, and
this is the most orthodox way of writing Japanese sentences fast. This is what
Japanese students learn at middle school, although that does not necessarily
mean all students master beautiful 行書. You can compare 楷書【かいしょ】 (regular
style) and 行書 [in this page](http://daigotorena.moo.jp/lesson/bushu-hen2.htm).

[草書【そうしょ】](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive_script_\(East_Asia\)) (cursive
script) refers to more aggressively abbreviated kanji/kana. Ordinary Japanese
people do not know how to write these, and have difficulty reading 草書.

# 略字 (abbreviated character)

While 行書 and 草書 are standardized and sophisticated, people often simplify
kanji in non-standard ways. You can see the two best-known examples
[here](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1340887073).
To take an extreme example, 慶応【けいおう】 is sometimes written [like
this](http://patica2nd.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-390.html) using English
alphabets. Although being useful, these types of 略字 are generally frowned upon
in formal situations, and I prefer to use 行書 whenever possible.

# 略語 (abbreviated words)

Similar to English acronyms. For example, 国際連合 (Unitated Nations) is shortened
into 国連【こくれん】, 高等学校 (high school) is shortened into 高校【こうこう】, リモートコントローラー
(remote controller) is shortened into リモコン, etc. Coining a new 略語 is not what
people do very often.

In Japanese, you can't shorten long words by piking their consonants (i.e.
somebody => smb, statement => stmt, ... is there a name for this?). But
because kanji are ideographic characters, many things can be expressed using
only one or two kanji. "Somebody" can be written as simply as "人" in a grammar
textbook, etc.

# 速記 (shorthand)

There is a Japanese version of shorthand, which allows us to write Japanese as
quickly as people speak Japanese. Of course this is definitely for those who
are professionally trained. [Example](http://www.sokki.or.jp/sokki/tango).
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answer