A thing I realized yesterday is ... the operation of seeing text and reading it is not the same for all people?
Like, if there is a book on the table, and I see the book, I will read the title. There is no way for me to not do that, and it doesn't take additional effort/attention
If there's an open book on a table, whenever I glance at it, my brain will register some paragraph on the page
If there's an open book on a table, whenever I glance at it, my brain will register some paragraph on the page
When I go on walks every store sign, every ad, every street sign, every scrap of text my gaze falls on are immediately registered in my brain
As a kid i would read the backs of cereal boxes. nutrition info. i knew the word "riboflavin" from a young age despite never using it
As a kid i would read the backs of cereal boxes. nutrition info. i knew the word "riboflavin" from a young age despite never using it
By "register" I mean that I might not pay *attention* to it, but the words run through my mind. So I'll often read the words and immediately discard them / forget about them
If it's in a language I don't speak but can read, the sounds will still register in my mind (badly)
If it's in a language I don't speak but can read, the sounds will still register in my mind (badly)
I bet this has something to do with hyperlexia, from a small anecdotal set it certainly seems to
This came up because @Sunjay03 noticed an open cooking book on my table, saw the pictures, and was like "oh you got that cooking book you were thinking of getting"
and later i mentioned something how it would also help me practice my french (the book was La Cuisine de Référence)
and later i mentioned something how it would also help me practice my french (the book was La Cuisine de Référence)
and he was confused! he didn't know it was in french. But he had seen the open page!
This was such an alien concept to me, if I see an open book i cannot help but register some of the text, and if it's not in english i'll absolutely notice that
This was such an alien concept to me, if I see an open book i cannot help but register some of the text, and if it's not in english i'll absolutely notice that
The easiest way for me to explain this is that i just have a part of my brain that is constantly processing/"saying" any text I see.
It cannot be turned off. I can choose to not keep looking at text -- if i glance at an open book or other longform text i don't *have* to keep looking and reading (and usually unless i intend to the glance won't linger for long), but if i am looking i cannot help but read it
This even happens with writing systems I cannot read! When I visited Taipei for the first time I knew zero Chinese, but i'd still attempt to read things and just have symbols floating in my mind. sometimes thoughts like "the one with happy lil trees"
at the end of the week i could read a very small set of characters and that's what got me into learning the language in the first place
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