Chinese takes more brain power? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Chinese takes more brain power?
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

32 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4 Next >>

Wulfgar
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United States
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Message 1 of 32

02 March 2012 at 5:49pm | IP Logged

According to
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3025796.stm

Quote:

Dr Sophie Scott and colleagues at the Wellcome Trust carried out brain scans on a group of Mandarin and
English speakers.

They found that the left temporal lobe, which is located by the left temple, becomes active when English speakers
hear English.

People who speak different sorts of languages use their brains to decode speech in different ways
Dr Sophie Scott,
Wellcome Trust
The researchers believe that this area of the brain links speech sounds together to form individual words.

They expected similar findings when they carried out scans on Mandarin speakers.

However, they found that both their left and right temporal lobes become active when they hear Mandarin.

Thoughts?
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IronFist
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Message 2 of 32

02 March 2012 at 5:55pm | IP Logged

Interesting. In for discussion.

Here's some info on the right hemisphere vs. the left hemisphere:

Quote:

The right hemisphere deals more with visual activities and plays a role in putting things together. For example, it takes visual information, puts it together, and says "I recognize that--that's a chair," or "that's a car" or "that's a house." It organizes or groups information together. The left hemisphere tends to be the more analytical part; it analyzes information collected by the right. It takes information from the right hemisphere and applies language to it. The right hemisphere "sees" a house, but the left hemisphere says, "Oh yeah, I know whose house that is--it's Uncle Bob's house."

<snip>

The left side of the brain deals more with language and helps to analyze information given to the brain.

<snip>

The right temporal lobe also deals with hearing. However, its job is to process musical information or help in the identification of noises. If this area is damaged, we might not be able to appreciate music or be able to sing. Because we tend to think and express in terms of language, the left temporal lobe is more critical for day-to-day functioning.

Source:
http://www.tbiguide.com/howbrainworks.html

So maybe Chinese speakers are associating each word with a character as they hear it, whereas English speakers don't?

Or maybe since the right side processes music it's coming into play because of the tonal nature of Chinese?

I dunno.
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Wulfgar
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Message 3 of 32

02 March 2012 at 7:14pm | IP Logged

IronFist wrote:

Or maybe since the right side processes music it's coming into play because of the tonal nature of Chinese?

They agree with this. More from the first article:

Quote:

"We think that Mandarin speakers interpret intonation and melody in the right temporal lobe to give the
correct meaning to the spoken words," said Dr Scott.

"It seems that the structure of the language you learn as a child affects how the structure of your brain develops
to decode speech.

"Native English speakers, for example, find it extraordinarily difficult to learn Mandarin."

I would love to see the difference between a native speaker and a learner. I wonder if we differ, and if a brain
scan can eventually show us some of what we need to work on.
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Arekkusu
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Message 4 of 32

03 March 2012 at 1:06am | IP Logged

The quotes are inconsistent. First, it says that English speakers use both hemispheres
where hearing Mandarin, then they talk about how Mandarin speakers process language. A
huge non sequitur, unless we are getting the wrong parts of the article.
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Merv
Bilingual Diglot
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Message 5 of 32

03 March 2012 at 5:13am | IP Logged

Supposedly the left temporal lobe is more associated with speech and the right with music. The tonal nature of
Chinese would thus invoke both lobes.
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Wulfgar
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Message 6 of 32

03 March 2012 at 10:22am | IP Logged

Arekkusu wrote:

The quotes are inconsistent. First, it says that English speakers use both hemispheres
where hearing Mandarin

I think says that Mandarin speakers use both hemispheres when hearing Mandarin, right?
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LaughingChimp
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Czech Republic
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Message 7 of 32

03 March 2012 at 7:09pm | IP Logged

Recently I read the opposite. They let people recognize words with different tones, English speakers used both hemispheres, suggesting it was a non linguistic task for them, while Mandarin speakers used only the left hemisphere.

Here: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/02/13/why-do-afr ican-and-english-clicks-sound-so-different-its-all-in-your-h ead/

Edited by LaughingChimp on 03 March 2012 at 7:16pm
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fiziwig
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Message 8 of 32

03 March 2012 at 7:22pm | IP Logged

If it's true that Chinese takes more brainpower to process then it's what we call in the computer business a "resource hog". In other words, harder than a language needs to be (i.e. more complicated than necessary).

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