Reading Arabic ‘hard for brain’
6th September 2010
The University of Haifa team say people use both sides of their brain when they begin reading a language – but when learning Arabic this is wasting effort.
The detail of Arabic characters means students should use only the left side of their brain because that side is better at distinguishing detail.
I can’t imagine that it would be harder than, say, Japanese or Chinese.
When someone learns to read Arabic they have to work out which letters are which, and which ones go with which sounds.
It is the ability to tell letters apart that seems to work differently in Arabic – because telling the characters apart involves looking at very small details such as the placement of dots.
Not sure how this differs from Hebrew.
Characters in English and Hebrew are easier to tell apart because there are clearer differences between them than there are in Arabic.
Oh, okay.