LIFE IN A WORLD FULL OF PRINT
In my blog a couple of weeks ago I included the sentence:
“Reading written English can be a challenge at the best of times due to a number of factors I won’t go into here.”
Very true! And I won’t go into them here; now. However, I thought you might enjoy an account of when I came unstuck once upon a time not so long ago, an incident that set me thinking long and hard.
My adventure came about as I was travelling on a local train. Mid-afternoon; almost the only passenger; sitting about halfway along the carriage; relaxed, happy, content, mind wandering… What could possibly go wrong?
My eyes lit on a sign at the far end of the carriage and I was instantly brought back to full awareness of my surroundings. That sign on that end wall of a public transport amenity made no sense; no sense at all.
Why on earth would anyone want to display a sign that read “CREATING OATS” in a railway carriage???
I pondered the matter for a while then read it more carefully and realised that that sign was actually “CHEATING GETS YOU NOWHERE” – it was composed in such a way that those four words made a neat square; two words on the first line; the last two on the second line. Additionally, the font used (all in capitals!) along with the tight spacing made the “H” in CHEATING look like an “R” and the “GE” looked like “OA” when it caught my wandering eye from where I was sitting some distance away.
I shook my head and contemplated the matter. Now you need to know that I am an avid reader and have been since the age of six; one of those folks who read Weetbix packets; who won’t go anywhere without having a book for those moments that drag without something to read.
I know our brains tend to do funny things at times. It is all too easy to get into a mess due to misunderstanding and/or misperception – often due to a fancy font; a confusing layout; a tricky,” invented” spelling designed to be eye-catching. What hope does a newbie to the system have?
I have the experience to think, “What the…?” when something doesn’t make sense. So, I look again – and more carefully.
But what of those with less experience and/or awareness? Maybe a small child still coming to grips with all the intricacies of our written language; battling to learn to read? Or maybe someone new to Australia who has come from a land where the writing system does not use our alphabet e.g. China or an Arabic country?
It would be all too easy to remain confused, convinced either that the world is bonkers or (much more likely) that they themselves are not up to scratch.
Tragically, this last conclusion is what far too many of our littlies decide about themselves when they arrive at school bright eyed and bushy tailed; eager to master all this reading stuff only to find that it makes little or no sense to them. So they decide that they themselves have to be no good; dumb bunnies; stupid…
For a number, this assessment of themselves becomes buried in their subconscious, a crippling, lifelong, totally unnecessary disability.
Indie Scriptorium -- Self Publishing Collective 