What is the purpose?

Have you ever read this article in BBC News...titled Reading Arabic "Hard for Brain"?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11181457

And you know who made this research...Israelis scientists from University of Haifa!!

And why BBC put this article under health section?

And why you chose Arabic and announced to the whole world?

Why you chose such title? Cant you give a better and not so confusing title?

Is there any sinister objective behind the publication of this article?

Are you saying Hebrew, Russian, Mongolian, Chinese, etc are not hard for anyone's brain?

When I read this article for the first time, I said to myself...oh ok but after second reading, I said...wait a minute...
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The article-

Israeli scientists believe they have identified why Arabic is particularly hard to learn to read.

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.

The findings from the study of 40 people are reported in Neuropsychology.

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.

Professor Zohar Eviatar, who led the research team, said: "The particular characteristics of Arabic make it hard for the right hemisphere to be involved. When you are starting something new, there is a lot of [right hemisphere] involvement."

Clearer differences
The researchers looked at 40 university students. Some of the students only spoke Hebrew, while some also spoke and read Arabic well.

In order to work out which side of the brain reads letters, the researchers flashed letters for a 10th of a second to one side of a screen or the other.

When the eyes see something for just a short time, and it is at one side of a screen, only one brain hemisphere is quick enough to process the image.

The team measured how fast and how accurate the students were when they tried to tell letters apart, first in Hebrew and then in Arabic.

All the students could read Hebrew well, and they all used both left and right hemispheres to tell Hebrew letters apart.

The same thing has previously been found with letters used in English.

Characters in English and Hebrew are easier to tell apart because there are clearer differences between them than there are in Arabic.

Sensitivity
When they looked at the students' reading of Arabic letters it gave the team a clue about why children find the language difficult to learn to read.

The Hebrew-only speakers behaved like children just starting to read most languages - they tried to tell Arabic letters apart, managed to do it slowly but made a lot of mistakes, and used both hemispheres of their brains.

The good Arabic readers, however, only used their left hemispheres to tell Arabic letters apart.

The researchers were intrigued by this and investigated further. They wanted to know why the right hemisphere was not working when reading Arabic letters, so they set a right hemisphere challenge.

They showed the students pairs of extremely similar Arabic letters - with just "local" differences - and letters that are more different - with "global" differences.

When the Arabic readers saw similar letters with their right hemispheres, they answered randomly - they could not tell them apart at all.

"The right hemisphere is more sensitive to the global aspects of what it's looking at, while the left hemisphere is more sensitive to the local features," says Professor Eviatar.

The team think this may give them some clues about what readers may be doing wrong when they begin to try to read Arabic.

Reading hope
Both young children and adults call on both hemispheres to help them learn a new task.

And using both hemispheres is the right thing to do when reading English or Hebrew - so children's learning strategies would be fine if they were reading another language.

But previous research has found that the right hemisphere is not that good at distinguishing small details, so readers starting to learn Arabic have to learn to focus on small details, which is not natural to them, but could help them shift to their left hemispheres.

Now the researchers want to compare new and highly expert Arabic readers in the hope of finding out what their brains are doing when they look at letters.

Ultimately, they would like to work out how to teach Arabic reading better to children, including helping them to tell letters apart and how to remember which sound goes with which letter.

Please share your thoughts on this article...

Finally...

...my team has closed our case (Prosecution stage)...Defence will start their case earliest in November.

And I just got back from Kigali (Rwanda). I was there to represent my team for the video-link testimony.

Last two weeks, I was in Kampala. I went there to interview Defence Alibi Witness.

It has been hectic since I got back in Arusha late July.

So forgive me for not posting anything for more than a month. I do miss my blog...

But time was not on my side.

Eid Fitr (Aidilfitri) is just around the corner. My family and I are planning to celebrate it in Nairobi this time. The reason - there will be Commonwealth Parliament Association meeting...and many Malaysians will be there to attend such meeting.

I have been to four East African countries - Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. I must say Kampala is the best city (amongst the capital cities of East African countries) I have ever been.

And I have a tooth ache...I must stop here.

We are back in Arusha!!

After almost 15 hours of flight and 5 hours of drive, "home sweet home"!

Jetlag is still there...will take a couple of days to get over it.

The next thing - unpack! which we hate...

Then we have to make sure the utilities, chickens, cable tv, internet r ok...so far the internet, water, electricity and chickens r ok, and thank God our chickens have multiplied!! now the number is 19...soon it is going to be 29, God willing.

I am still at my house..Im supposed to go to the office an hour ago but since my body and mind are yet to synchronize to Arusha tunes...will let the office wait.

A couple of weeks from now will be Ramadhan! So selamat berpuasa semua!!

Snippets

1) Ownernya cuti-cuti Malaysia so blognya cuti la!

2) Sedapnya durian kucing tidur dan musang king!!

3) Wa sokong, besides Chelsea, Real Madrid sekarang...Mourinho factor!!

4) Sudah puas i makan petai dan tempoyak!!

5) Dalam masa 9 hari, kami akan balik ke Arusha!

Lesen Judi Vincent Tan

Sedar tak sekarang sejak mulanya World Cup 2010, banyak berita di newspaper, tv, etc bookie haram or tauke judi haram kena serbu dan tangkap dan ada yang tengah on the run?

So apa maksudnya disini?

Saya tak tahulah orang ramai paham ke sejarah lesen judi Vincent Tan ni...tapi apa yang saya baca dan faham adalah -

1) Lesen judi itu sudah diisukan pada tahun 80an kepada dia tapi dia pulangkan balik ke kerajaan dengan syarat dia boleh mintak balik lesen tu pada bila-bila masa...

2) Tak jelas pulak kenapa dia pulangkan. Mungkin masa lesen judi tu diisukan masa tu ekonomi teruk, ingat tak tahun 87 ke 88 masa ekonomi negara jatuh...so tak berbaloi dia jalankan judi masa tu...

3) Jadi, sekarang VT rasa masakini cocok bagi dia mintak balik lesen tu...mungkin dia rasa org Malaysia da ramai orang kaya serta canggih...

4) Sebab tu our PM Najib said 'the government did not issue any licence to VT or his company'...in other words, our government is just returning the VT's licence that was issued years ago!!

Correct me if Im wrong.

Thus, I feel that all these news about illegal bookies arrested had to be sensationalized in order to justify the move!

Ok ke ko?

Balik Kampung, hohohoho balik kampung...

hati girang!! perjalanan jauh...la la la (ikut melodi lagu Sudirman)...

bestnya, bestnya...26 Jun kami bertolak ke tanahair!!

Kami sudah order redang kerang, kacang botol, tempoyak, etc etc...gomuk la den balik....eh eh betul la, org sekrg kurus la...cuba pipi je tembam, heheheh

anyway, tahun ni cuti 30 hari tapi da penuh ngan agenda2 tertentu...

kali ni nak gi Sabah or Pangkor or Pantai Timur lagi...

Tapi Kuala Kangsar serta Lenggong mesti kami lawat....

anak2 dah bagi shopping list da...pandai sungguh depa ni...

ok lah nanti ketemu lagi yek di Malaysia!!!

Tak sabar rasanya!!!

Sedapnya mulut!

Menteri kita cakap dengan RM3000 cukup untuk duduk di kota raya provided kita tidak ade Astro dan Kereta...oiii, sedapnya mulut dia bercakap!

Apa jenis menteri ni, dia ingat kita mentedarah Astro ngan Kereta ke?!!

Dia ingat kita perlu 'puashati' dengan RM3000 tu sahaja?

Mentang2 lah awak ade driver, kereta free, ade escort and tauke Astro kawan baik kerajaan...tol awak ntah2 bole claim...

Hello, tak tahu ke sekrg kereta sudah jadi keperluan bukan lagi salah satu kemewahan...jangan salahkan rakyat (walaupun anak ramai) kalu rakyat nak beli kereta kancil kerana nak lawat makbapak kota kat kampung...atau kerana tidak mampu hantar anak pakai bas sekolah kerana tambang bas sekolah sudah mahal...

Sepatutnya...berilah suggestion yang lebih munasabah, lebih bijak...

Inilah kalau first time jadi menteri, tak sudah2 pikir cakap dia sahaja yang penuh ngan wisdom dan bagus...

sebelum tu pulak beri gambaran yang salah, kata semua org Kampung Baru beri persetujuan utk bangunkan kawasan Kampung baru...eh eh eh, sedapnya mulut dia bercakap...inilah bahana kalu takde org nak tegur menteri2 kita ni...

Jawatankuasa Kg Baru atau MAS cakap bila masa depa kasi persetujuan, depa kata depa bukan anti pembangunan tapi caranya kena betul!

Betul jugak MAS ckp...Kenapa nak bagi org luar yang handlekan? Itulah satu2 kawasan Melayu jati atau totok yang masih wujud kat Kuala Lumpur, apa salahnya kita bangunkan ikut cara depa...kalu saya, saya suruh depa cantikkan rumah depa...walaupun rumah kayu...biar ade ciri2 melayu original di dalam Kuala Lumpur...tak yah bangunan tinggi tinggi diperbuat ngan simen, besi dan kaca...cantikkan Kg Baru dengan watak2 tradisional melayu dari Selangor, NS, Perak, Kelantan, etc...jadikan ia tempat tourism yang unggul...eh kalau kita ade Petaling Street dan Brickfields untuk menampakkan ciri2 kaum2 lain, apa salah jadikan Kg Baru ciri Melayu di tengah Kuala Lumpur?!

lagi satu tolonglah pikir brp sgt org melayu yang ade tanah atau hartanah kat Kuala Lumpur sekrg...cubalah pikir baik2, cubalah tanganinya dengan hati2 dan penuh sensitiviti...jangan pikir pembangunan itu bole dipaksa...

menteri tu agaknya kalu kasi kat melayu (org dia sendiri) utk bangunkan Kg Baru...nanti kawasan akan tetap dull...tapi pikirlah kalu org melayu sudah bahagia dengan cara dia buat niaga...cara dia persembahkan perniagaan yang mungkin dibuat ala kadar bukan seperti kedai kaum lain, apa salahnya kita terima...kita bole terima org asli kita bercawat sampai sekrg takkan kita tak bole terima cara kita org kita berniaga atau memajukan diri...

adakah tempat niaga atau pembangunan itu perlu pertukaran secara fizikal sahaja seperti kena buat bahagian pameran yang canggih, yang lip lap lip lap...sebenarnya bagi sesetengah org pemikiran kita yang perlukan pembangunan dahulu...dan masih ade org Melayu suka berniaga mengikut kemampuan dan tidak mahu sgt mengikut cara masakini, tapi kalu dia dpt untung byk dgn cara itu, kenapa hendak dipaksa dia berubah...

siapa yang taknak tgk kaum sendiri maju, berjaya...tapi kenalah tanganinya dengan penuh bijaksana...

eh nak tgk bola la, Holland dan Jepun!!