I found the chapter on "how we read" to be very disappointing. Even though Crystal explained the theories of whether we read by ear or read by eye, he did not go into the topic of the direction of reading. For instance, is it more natural to read from right to left or left to right? Or, is there a certain age where it become much more difficult to learn to read from the opposite direction? I guess this would be really hard to test. I do have to believe that it would have been easier to learn Farsi when I was younger.
I also didn't agree with everything in "how we write and spell." Crystal was explaining that writing is more difficult than reading because spellers have to reproduce all of the letters. This isn't the case in Farsi, where consonants are written but only sometimes "alef" ("a") is written. I did like the part where Crystal talks about how children need to learn that writing aids thinking in ways that speech cannot perform. He says that writing gives the person time to reflect, to re-think, and to use language as a way of shaping thought. Now I don't feel so bad that most of my learning has revolved around learning how to write.
On Tuesday, Wadia, my language partner, is going to give me a "test." It is going to consist of the alphabet, writing words she pronounces, family relationships, and colors. I'm excited to see how I do.
This week I am going to focus on making simple sentences. Last week I started to learn pronouns; now I just need to build my vocabulary and work on verbs.
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