Academias Pitman and Parliamentary Shorthand

Academias Pitman: Parliamentary Shorthand and the Educational Work of Juan María Jan


By Martín E. Córdoba (former parliamentary stenographer, former Pitman Shorthand teacher, and shorthand calligrapher)



This is how the expression “la taquigrafía” is written using the signs of the Academias Pitman method of Argentina, a prestigious educational institution founded in Buenos Aires in 1919. Throughout its history, it came to have more than 30 branches, most of them in Argentina and some in Uruguay, where it began operating in Montevideo in 1929, with one of its earliest locations at 1304 Avenida 18 de Julio.

Professor Juan María Jan (Jean-Marie Jan), one of its founders, was the one who adapted, perfected, and simplified Sir Isaac Pitman’s System within the scope of Academias Pitman. Thanks to the excellent method, edited and published for several decades by Academias Pitman under the title Taquigrafía Pitman Comercial y Parlamentaria, numerous parliamentary shorthand writers were trained, who went on to serve in various deliberative bodies in Argentina and Uruguay.


Prof. Juan M. Jan, general director of Academias Pitman. Image taken from 
EL LIBRO DEL ÉXITO. CÓMO PREPARARSE PARA EL COMERCIO (Academias Pitman, 1961, p. 14). Copy from the author's private collection.

The International Projection of the Academias Pitman Method and Jan’s Educational Work

Jan, of French origin and educated in the United States, brought an international perspective to shorthand from the very beginning. Academias Pitman adapted its Spanish shorthand method into English and French, thus responding to the linguistic diversity that characterized Argentina between the 1920s and the 1970s.

In the institution’s own materials, this international aspect was highlighted. An Academias Pitman advertisement stated (Taquigrafía Pitman Comercial y Parlamentaria, 63rd edition, 1976, p. 122):

“Transformation into English and French. Academias Pitman is the only institution that offers courses for adapting Spanish shorthand to either of these languages. Our proprietary method quickly enables students to write the foreign language with the same speed as Spanish. Shorthand writers in two or three languages are in great demand and splendidly remunerated.”

In addition, Jan wrote together with professor Ricardo Ollúa, also a founder of Academias Pitman, other educational manuals, such as El corresponsal moderno, El inglés práctico, El inglés comercial, and El francés práctico, which broadened the institution’s pedagogical reach. In this way, Academias Pitman, which offered a wide variety of courses both in-person and by correspondence, and even published for several years its own Revista Pitman, consolidated itself not only as a benchmark in the teaching of shorthand, but also expanded its prestige in the educational and professional fields.

Book Taquigrafía Pitman Comercial y Parlamentaria






These are the covers of two of the more than 60 editions of the book Taquigrafía Pitman Comercial y Parlamentaria. It is worth noting that the editions were officially approved by the Consejo Nacional de Educación (Exp. No. 16,783 A), which allowed their legal use in schools, commercial courses, and academies, thereby guaranteeing the educational validity of the method. This large number of editions reflects the book’s pedagogical consistency, the trust of teachers and students, and the continued relevance of the Academias Pitman method.

It should be noted that this book begins with a brief biography of Sir Isaac Pitman. This inclusion serves as a tribute to his legacy and as a reminder of the international roots of the method. In this way, the manual not only instructed in technique but also conveyed a spirit of recognition toward the figure who gave origin to the system.

Here are some fundamental guidelines transcribed from this book (50th edition, 1966):

“Take care with the shape and size of the signs. Write slowly at first. Speed will come with practice.” (p. 30)

“Good-quality paper and pencil. Both during study and in actual work, shorthand writing requires the use of suitable paper, with special ruling, and a special shorthand pencil, kept well sharpened for producing both thin and thick strokes. Departing from this requirement, whether through economy or negligence, is certainly very counterproductive.” (p. 45)

“Take care with the size of the signs and read them several times after each exercise to become familiar with them as with ordinary writing.” (p. 83)

In addition to these guidelines, the book stood out not only for its twenty practical lessons but also for the richness of its complementary materials. It included review charts of the lessons, lists of grammalogues and contractions for commercial and parliamentary use, epistolary practice sheets, reviews of prefixes, endings, and suffixes, as well as a list of words whose shorthand writing presented greater difficulty and which were recommended for constant practice. All of this made the manual a complete and carefully designed work to guide the student from the very first strokes to achieving solid proficiency in shorthand.

The logic behind the selection of words in the exercises was also emphasized (24th edition, 1947, p. 21):

“The words in our exercises have been chosen in such a way that their shorthand writing does not change with the rules that follow, and therefore any effort to practice with these words proves beneficial.”

This observation reveals the didactic intention of Academias Pitman: to ensure that each exercise had lasting value, preventing the student from investing time in examples that might later become outdated with the incorporation of new rules.

Shorthand Diploma awarded by the Academias Pitman of Montevideo





In 1968, Academias Pitman of Argentina had professor Juan María Jan as its director general. He held this position for many years and signed diplomas in that capacity. The secretary general was professor Eduardo N. Calcagno, author of the Calligraphy method taught at the institution.

This historic diploma, awarded in Montevideo to the stenographer Evaristo Fernández, bears the signatures of the distinguished professors Jan and Calcagno, as well as that of his teacher, and is dated December 21, 1968. At the main office in Argentina, including all of its branches, this same diploma design was used for nearly 40 years, beginning in the mid-1950s.

It should be noted that other institutional diplomas from different periods, the signatures of Juan María Jan and Ricardo Ollúa appear together, both holding the position of general director, which reflects that they shared the leadership of Academias Pitman during a large part of its history.

Interesting detail: the cultural legacy of Juan María Jan

Juan María Jan, a great creator and visionary, was the maternal grandfather of Cris Morena, a renowned Argentine producer, host, actress, and composer. In an interview, Cris Morena recalled that when she was a child, during the summers, she would spend the afternoons in the large library her grandfather kept at his residence in the Province of Córdoba. There, surrounded by books and magazines, she spent hours reading and playing. This memory belongs to Cris Morena’s childhood in the 1960s, when Academias Pitman was at the height of its splendor. Jan’s library, filled with books and magazines, reflected the same educational spirit that the institution spread throughout Argentina and Uruguay.

Acknowledgment and Special Mention

I would like to pay tribute to my beloved Academias Pitman of Tucumán, the branch that was located at 25 de Mayo 195 in San Miguel de Tucumán, previously situated at San Martín 575. I am grateful for the dedicated and personalized training provided by its teachers in 1993, 1994, and 1995.

I would also like to make special mention of Academias Pitman of Montevideo, which was located at 1494 Avenida 18 de Julio, where on January 9, 2009, I obtained my diploma as a Technician in Parliamentary Shorthand.

The legacy of Academias Pitman lives on today in the memory and in the mark it left on those of us who had the privilege of studying there, as well as in the books that still circulate and continue to transmit its teaching.



The photographs of the historic diploma were taken from the listing of the item on Todocoleccion.net, where it was offered by a seller in Spain. The author acquired it on February 16, 2026, and since then it has been part of his private collection.

All quotations from Taquigrafía Pitman Comercial y Parlamentaria included in this article were taken from copies belonging to the author’s private collection.

We invite you to visit the blogs La Taquigrafía and Shorthand Calligraphy, as well as our YouTube channel Taquigrafía a Lápiz.

  
This article is also available in Spanish.

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