MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Do you get a second wind when switching from horizontal to vertical script?

Polyglot27 · 01-23-2009, 08:53 AM

Since I have noticed that there are other members of MR that read Asian languages, I thought I might ask this question here.
A few years ago I discovered that after reading an English or French book for a few hours and beginning to feel tired, I can take up a Japanese or Chinese book and start reading again feeling quite fresh. The only explanation I can provide now is that my eyes move left to right when I read English but they go top to bottom when I read Japanese since the lines are printed vertically, therefore using a different set of muscles.
I would like to know if others who read Chinese, Japanese or Korean (all vertically written languages) have similar experiences.

01-23-2009, 08:53 AM	#1
Polyglot27 Addict Posts: 231 Karma: 5588994 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Paris, France Device: Cybook Gen3, Archos 80 G9, Sony PRS-650, Sony T1, Asus MemoPad.	Do you get a second wind when switching from horizontal to vertical script? Since I have noticed that there are other members of MR that read Asian languages, I thought I might ask this question here. A few years ago I discovered that after reading an English or French book for a few hours and beginning to feel tired, I can take up a Japanese or Chinese book and start reading again feeling quite fresh. The only explanation I can provide now is that my eyes move left to right when I read English but they go top to bottom when I read Japanese since the lines are printed vertically, therefore using a different set of muscles. I would like to know if others who read Chinese, Japanese or Korean (all vertically written languages) have similar experiences.