I've always been fascinated by beautiful and beguiling scripts, that's one of the things that has drawn me to many of the languages I have studied: Japanese, Chinese, Sanskrit (and Hindi), Mongolian, Burmese, Georgian, Kannada, and Coptic — all have scripts that have enchanted me. Chinese with its complicated block characters a few to a dozen plus strokes each, Japanese with the same, padded by its kana mark-up, Devanagari with its reliable top line, exotic curving letter bodies and extravagant flourishing vowel marks. Of course the king of all entrancing writing systems is the vertical Mongolian script, with its almost dangerous-looking intensity. Burmese charms the eye with its whimsical procession of circles within circles, in a style that at once feels ancient and space-aged. Georgian feels heavily of Middle Earth or at least mysterious medieval manuscripts, as does Coptic, with its sultry stylized ⲁ's (a) and arcane feel. Kannada, with its expressive faces and eyes, complete with eyebrows or eyelashes, the beauty of the ornate script draws you in before you have the chance to hear it spoken. I love learning how to write in these scripts, and not just write but write beautifully.