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Left hand, right hand crazy question? | ||
Tags: Secondhand | Brain | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| ExRN Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3422 days ago 61 posts - 75 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 7 12 August 2015 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||
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This may seem like a very strange question but here goes.....
I start university in September to study languages, specifically Italian, Spanish and German. I am capable of using both hands to write with and wondered if words written with different hands would register on different parts of the brain? If this is the case would there be good reason to write Spanish with the left hand and Italian with the right in order to help my brain not to confuse the two? We could take this one step further and use one ear for each and one eye also. As you can probably appreciate, I am no neuro scientist so any advice would be great. I know it's a strange idea but I did read once about brocas area being used in some people, another area by others and both by 10% of left handed people which I predominantly am. Is that the way to register certain words on different parts etc? Would be good to file my languages neatly in my brain. Cheers guys 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6730 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 7 12 August 2015 at 1:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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It definitely is a weird question.
As for the labor division in the brain it is true that Broca's area and Wernicke's area are important for language production, but these are usually placed in the left half and only there. Some rare persons may have mirror images of the normal brain so that these centres are in the right half, though I don't remember seeing this on print anywhere. But I definitely haven't seen any reference to people with those areas duplicated. But the matter gets slightly more complicate when you consider that the specific language areas aren't the only ones involved in speaking and writing. Quite generally patients with lesions in Broca have trouble making the necessary sounds, whereas those with lesions in Wernicke can speak fluently, but only speak rubbish. However foul words and other semi-linguistic utterances can be enunciated purely by using the right half of the brain, using mechanisms that basically are non-linguistic. OK, you want to separate Spanish and Italian by using the left vs. the right hand. But you will still use the same Broca and the same Wernicke. However there are indications that for instance the vocabulary recall functions for different languages can be located differently in second language learners than if you a native speaker, but the more reports I have seen about this the more confusing the picture seems to be. I suggest that you forget about the neurophysiological part of this and return to your basic wish, namely to separate the two languages. And writing each one with different hand might do the trick (though few people are so completely ambidextrous that they can write with equal ease with both hands). But it would probably work just as well always to study Spanish in your kitchen and Italian in your bedroom, or to study Italian on Mondays and Spanish on Wednesdays. Personally I would prefer studying one of them until it has been stabilized (which isn't the same as learning to speak it even at a B1 og B2 level), and then add the other. But there are many ways to do this, and different people should probably do it in different ways. Edited by Iversen on 12 August 2015 at 5:35pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ExRN Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3422 days ago 61 posts - 75 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch | Message 3 of 7 12 August 2015 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you for such a definitive answer iverson. I lived in Spain for a while so I have a good grounding with the language. I have looked at the basics of the Italian language, hence why I feel I could get a little confusion . I like your kitchen and bedroom strategy! Good thinking that. I think I will be paying a visit to the psychology department when I arrive to get an Fmri scan done. I have always been curious as to whether I am one of those rare ten percenters. I was hoping to study both languages everyday as opposed to alternative. Do you think that's a bad idea? AM/PM kind of affair. I also have German to learn up to B2, granted it's not as higher level as the others but I will still need to budget some time for that one. I am not overly concerned about confusing it with the romance ones though for obvious reasons. Don't think I could have wrote it using my left foot anyway ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6730 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 7 12 August 2015 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Studying the language on alternate dates would be both and easy way to keep the study sessions separate, and if you use a variety of study methods on each language on a given day you might prevent the boredom that could be the result of sticking to one language.
I have already noticed that you didn't fear mixing German into your pair of Romance languages, but if you make a plan for these two you should also take care not to leave German at the doorstep. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExRN Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3422 days ago 61 posts - 75 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch | Message 5 of 7 12 August 2015 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
There is method to my madness on that one Iverson. As already mentioned it won't get too confusing as if studying a triplet of romances, there is FREE education in Germany (always good), it makes an excellent bridge from my mother tongue to Dutch (my university city has a port with cheap connections) which in turn would lead nicely to Afrikaans. I feel lucky at 29 years of age to have finally found a way to pursue something I've always wanted. In the forces I was given the chance to pursue Middle Eastern tongues but at the last minute I unfortunately became sick and lost out there. Now I'm in the civilian world I can follow this through and make is my meaning of life. <----- bit cheesy? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mork the Fiddle Senior Member United States Joined 3996 days ago 86 posts - 159 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 6 of 7 12 August 2015 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to HTLAL, ExRN. You seem born to be a language student, and you have thought through what you plan to do. Please report back here from time to time on your progress. Good luck!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExRN Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3422 days ago 61 posts - 75 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch | Message 7 of 7 12 August 2015 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Cheers Mork the fiddle. I am just getting to grips with the forum but I will be making regular contributions.
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