Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
For alphabetic languages - ie languages which use the Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, etc - alphabets, it really is not a problem for most adult learners.
I am a moderator of the Latin and ancient Greek forums of an on-line adult-education "distance learning" establishment here in the UK. The one thing that EVERYBODY worries about when they are starting to learn Greek is "how will I cope with that funny alphabet?". The thing that almost everybody finds is that within literally a few days of starting to learn the language, they no longer even notice the alphabet. Learning new alphabets really is not a problem for the overwhelming majority of people. It "looks" scary, but it isn't.
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Here I have to disagree with you.
Greek alphabet is something different than, let's say Russian Azbuka.
Most of technically educated people in my country know quite a few greek letters from its use in mathematics. Even kids from grammar school have seen alpha beta gamma used to mark angles, they will have seen greek letter S used as Sum symbol and do not forget Omega - symbol of electrical resistance. And of course Delta used as a symbol of difference.
When I was learning Russian I spent most of the effort fighting to read Azbuka fluently. Even after 10 years of learning I had to fight with Azbuka. Have a look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_alphabet
I know, I was a special case - from the entire class I had the greatest problems with writing of dictations despite great effort I put into it. Yet I am not dyslectic. I have never had problems with other languages or even special symbol language used in higher mathematics. My point is that the unfamiliar alphabet can significantly complicate life of somebody trying to learn a new language.