Introduction
Have you ever noticed which part of your brain control you the most? According to neuroscientists, the right-brain hemisphere controls our emotions, creativity, and art, whereas the left-brain hemisphere controls speech, writing, comprehension and math. For me, I think I am controlled by my right-brain hemisphere rather than my left-brain hemisphere.
_______________________________
body 1 = Right-brained
From my observation, I think I am right-brained. At school, I did well on subjects such drawing and music. When I studied drawing and music, I could understand concepts of these subject quickly and I could apply them well. I even had a design of what I wanted to draw in my head before I actually drew it on a canvas. In addition, at work, I have done well on jobs that use creativity and artistic skills such as producing presentation slides with beautiful graphics. I think I have an aptitude for art.
____________________________________
body 2 = Left-brained
On contrast to my ability on creativity and artistic skills, I am weak on mathematic skills and languages. At school, I never got an A in algebra and calculus and I had hard times to understand and apply the rules and concepts of the two subjects. I usually takes lots of my efforts to solve for an X in an equation. In addition to my weakness on math, I am not good at composing a poetry even in my native language. I can play some music instruments well, but I cannot compose lyrics. I think I do not have a talent on math and languages.
____________________________________
Reading Emma's ideas about being right-brained, I was reminded of my own experiences, which were very different. I was always terrible at drawing when I was in school, and I admired the students who could draw something that actually looked like the subject they were drawing. I just could not do that, so I thought I didn't have that ability.
ReplyDeleteThen when I was living and studying in Taiwan, I learnt of an unusual (to me) way to learn languages, which was very different to the traditional way I had studied languages like Latin, Greek and Chinese (I studied mainly classical Chinese - I could never speak very the modern languages very well.) I read about an approach to language learning that was based on the way children learn their native language, which is not be studying it: I spoke English very well before I ever went to school, and I'm sure you all spoke Thai before you ever studied it in school. This was being tried at a school in Thailand, which used the natural approach to teach Thai. AUA still teaches Thai using this approach, and it is the reason I initially decided to come and stay in Thailand for a while.
But getting back to drawing, Emma's post reminded me that the director of the Thai studies dept. at the time introduced me to a book that applied the same principles to drawing to my amazement, I discovered that within only a few weeks, I could actually draw! Picasso has nothing to worry about, but I was amazed that I could actually learn to do something I thought my brain was not designed for.
Unlike with my blog post discussing my own brain, I did not brainstorm or do much planning for this response. I got an idea from Emma's post that related to my own life, and started writing. As I wrote, more ideas came to mind. I fitted those new ideas in as well as I could if I thought that they were interesting and connected. And about ten minutes later, I stopped.
DeleteHi Emma,
ReplyDeleteReading your story about creative skills has really impressed me. I wish I can produce art and designed products like you. When I was studying in primary school, participating in the art class is one of my favorite activities. I would say that I used to be great at painting and drawing, but after I attended a high school, I barely associated with art. My drawing and painting skills dropped rapidly. However, If I have enough time to prepare and practice these skills again. I think I can do it. In my opinion, there is no one poor in art or math if they learn and practice correctly.
Moreover, practicing is always helpful in my view. I used to be deficient in math, but I try to practice and do many math exams. Finally, I can get a good score in math. That is the reason why I think you can develop your math and language talents too.
Hi Yo,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
I agree with you that everyone can learn new skills. I also commented the idea in your post.
If you click "Reply" and write a five to ten-minute response to a comment, including a comment on your own blog post, I count that as a comment.
DeleteAs you described about your ability of creativity and art, you reminded me of my old-friends. When I was in high school, I had lots of friends who are good at art. When They showed me their drawings, then I admired them every
ReplyDeletetime. I believe that it took lots of time to finished just only one of drawing.
Difference from me, I am terrible at drawing, and I can not play any instruments. But I thing that right-brained people are talented, because they can create beautiful things and have excellent ideas.