As an apropos:
I had a new student this semester. She is physically and mentally handicapped. Not severely mentally handicapped, just a bit slower. Maybe autistic… I’m not really sure since I can’t read her Chinese file.
Anyway, I was somewhat dreading having her, as I thought it drag the level of the whole class down; Shame on me.
She has turned out to be one of my best students and quickest learners.
She once asked me “How to spell…xxxx?” and I corrected her by saying “Well, first I’ll tell you what: in English, we never ask ‘How to spell…’ or ‘How to say…’; instead, we always ask ‘How do you spell…’ or ‘How does one spell…’. Understand?”
Her: “OK. How do you spell…?”
and she hasn’t said “How to spell…” since. Awesome.
Yeah, it’s the little things that make the difference.
[quote=“MPenguin”]Maybe autistic… I’m not really sure since I can’t read her Chinese file.
…
She once asked me “How to spell…xxxx?” and I corrected her by saying “Well, first I’ll tell you what: in English, we never ask ‘How to spell…’ or ‘How to say…’; instead, we always ask ‘How do you spell…’ or ‘How does one spell…’. Understand?”
Her: “OK. How do you spell…?”
and she hasn’t said “How to spell…” since. Awesome.[/quote]
Off-topicness alert!
I’ve read bits and pieces here and there along the lines of “Chinese is a contextual language requiring a lot of right-brain thinking, whereas most European languages are very ‘systemised’ and require a lot of left-brain thinking.” Autistic spectrum conditions tend to be related to a greater emphasis on systemising, so it seems perfectly logical to me that someone with an autistic-type problem should be good at learning English.
I have a high-school student with autistic-type behavioural issues. It’s hell getting him to open his mouth, but the quality of English he produces is extremely high.
[quote=“Loretta”]
I have a high-school student with autistic-type behavioural issues. It’s hell getting him to open his mouth, but the quality of English he produces is extremely high.[/quote]
Is that the student you mentioned before who had trouble reciting from memory in front of the class?
[quote=“Tempo Gain”][quote=“Loretta”]
I have a high-school student with autistic-type behavioural issues. It’s hell getting him to open his mouth, but the quality of English he produces is extremely high.[/quote]
Is that the student you mentioned before who had trouble reciting from memory in front of the class?[/quote]
He didn’t have trouble reciting from memory. He was asked to prepare a 50-word summary and came back with a couple of pages of A4. He flipped when I asked him to improvise and just give me the main points. He’s shy and has trouble adapting, but what he writes and speaks is of a very high quality.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3025796.stm
[quote]They found that the left temporal lobe, which is located by the left temple, becomes active when English speakers hear English.
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. [/quote]
These researchers put the difference down to the tonal nature of Mandarin. I think it has more to do with how people use language. Chinese logic is different from western logic, and uses different circuits.
“I go there yesterday” - the information about time is appended to the information about who did what, and processed separately - ie the ‘tense’ is inferred from the context in which the verb occurs.
“I went there yesterday” - some information about time is incorporated into the information about who did what, with additional detail appended - ie the tense is part of a system which reduces the need for contextual analysis.
I think this needs to be split off from the original thread…
Left brain right brain stuff is veeeery interesting. I just googled and found a couple of tests:
davidtan.org/the-left-brain- … rain-test/
paulhartrick.com/left-brain-vs-r … olour-test
Both of these indicate that I am strongly right-brained. Weirdly enough, when I took the Asperger’s test thingy last year I came up as close to borderline autistic. Can you be both? Or are the tests just crap?
I have a feeling this is all related to the question of [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/answering-a-different-question/48814/1 Taiwanesers never answer the question you ask[/url] too, and maybe to the thread about people flipping out when you challenge them - inability to process in the way that we’re asking them to. The other side of the coin would be foreigners getting angry about stuff that Taiwanesers don’t see as important. They’re less focused on cause and effect.
Probably warrants its own topic, Loretta, but I will weigh in a bit here.
The area of the brain associated with language is the Left perisylvian region of the brain, near the Sylvian Fissure. This is what Stephen Pinker calls “The Language Organ.”
The fact that Mandarin speakers activate both left and right parts of their brain when they hear Mandarin probably has something to do with the tones registering not as language, but as sounds. The left side takes care of language, detail, math, etc. The right side processes sounds, imagination, etc. Viola… both sides.
Your statement that “Chinese logic is different from western logic, and uses different circuits” gets a little too close to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis which, in my opinion, is so false and misleading and uninformed that it’s not even funny.
Anywho, interesting thoughts, but let’s try to keep it on topic from now on. 
Viola!
You must be one of those left brain thickies.
Dis thread funny. What was the question again?
Yes, that’s the boy I meant. Glad to hear he’s doing well.
[quote=“MPenguin”] Maybe autistic… I’m not really sure since I can’t read her Chinese file.
She has turned out to be one of my best students and quickest learners.
[/quote]
She probably has Ausberger’s syndrome, a very mild form of autism. Many people with syndrome are incredibly smart but often lack in social skills/graces. One of my old flatmates had it. Could learn languages in no time at all, but often had trouble socializing. Admired the guy as he was able to pull quite a few women and build up a successful business. Back in his home country (he was a Brit), he’d probably be on social assistance of some sort.
Only tangentially on topic, but:
Male brain, female brain is linked to finger length, I read in The Times (British, politically right-leaning, slightly suspect Tory rag) today. Although many scientists dispute it, ‘male’-ness shows some correlation with the length of your ring finger. People with a longer ring finger than index finger are more ‘masculine’ and had higher levels of exposure to testosterone in the womb and are more prone to autism and better at maths, and ‘systemizing’ skills.
Autism has had a lot of press in Britain recently, due to the development of prenatal screening test.
Also, an interesting snippet was that most couples, regardless of sex, have one person with a longer ring finger, and one with a longer index finger. Probably garbage, but I’m going to be peeking into folks’ mittens for the next couple 'o days…