Archive for the ‘Book review’ Category

If I have not read certain book about this topic, I would have already believed this research, which says Powerpoint is not good for presentation. (The Register has another post)

The point is that, while people are reading text, they are already interpreting its meaning; but at the same time speaker is speaking the same thing; this doubles the ‘loading’ of brain, and lowers the effectiveness of learning.

OTOH, it is entirely different when presenting graphics and at the same time speaking. They will trigger different parts of the brain, one for conversion between graphical data and cognition, another for conversion between verbal data (sound) and cognition. These 2 kinds of data don’t share the same ‘bandwidth’.

Why visual data and verbal data share the same ‘bandwidth’? The book suggests that, when reading English, the verbal subsystem in brain is triggered, which turns text verbally, then turns verbal data into abstract data. However, the sound signals received via our ears fight for the same bandwidth, thus worsening the learning.

OK, the basics are covered. Now my suspicion: Chinese works exactly in the opposite way! That means, presenting Chinese sentences and speaking at the same time helps interpreting information, instead of worsening it.

In the book, the author has given such research result after performing testing on a bunch of children: when kids are given pictures and Chinese letters at the same time, they tend more to fail learning Chinese letters, worse then when they are given Chinese letters alone. This is opposite to equivalent tests for English.

The author gave this explanation: Chinese language is ideographic in nature, which is very different from English. That means when reading Chinese, another part of brain is triggered, which transforms graphical data into abstract thinking. So these Chinese letters, which is indeed more picture-like in ancient time, fight for the same bandwidth with the accompanying pictures, and reduce the effectiveness of learning.

The thing the news agents are trying to make news out of relates highly to Dual Coding Theory by A. Paivio. It states that, visual and verbal information are processed differently and along distinct channels within the human mind. Time to end this — so far I can’t possibly do any research on this topic, so my suspicion will always remain in current form as it is — suspicion.

前幾天在商務印書館「掃貨」，買了好些有關中文的書，例如標點符號的應用和規範 (甚至連標點符號應該偏向方格的哪一方這種細微問題也有講)，但最值得我拿出來比較的是兩本談香港人經常寫錯的錯別字的書：

1. 何成邦的《香港別字追蹤》(明報出版社出版)
2. 容若的《熒幕用字辨正》(明窗出版社出版)

不要以為只有出版社名稱差不多，連書本封面設計、厚度也幾乎完全一樣，可能因為兩者的發行商都是明報出版社。可是內容就不同了，一本是寶，一本是草。為甚麼這樣說？因為一本能夠從中學到不少知識，另一本只是用來發洩不滿的工具。

那麼哪本是我剛才所說，用來發洩不滿的工具？答案是第二本，《熒幕用字辨正》。書中內容開始時是說將電視常有的錯別字揪出來，不過看過幾頁後就發覺不是那麼一回事，整本書的主旨不是用來教人如何追本尋源，避免錯別字，那只是餘興節目而已。真正的主旨只有兩個：

1. 大陸搞簡體字，令香港人寫錯字。
2. 日本搞簡化漢字，令香港人寫錯字。

每談一組錯別字 (即是說每掀一頁) 上面其中一句就會出現一次，幾十條條目都是用同一個模鑄出來的。「鬼唔知阿媽係女人」！大陸的簡體字簡化得太過份造成混亂，簡轉繁經常轉錯，有誰不知，還要作者來教？整本書除了抨擊外，就只有少部份只是單純地解釋錯字了，也隻字不提如何改善，不是為了發洩是甚麼？在序言中還要理直氣壯地說是為了正本清源呢。

另一本呢？每一條條目先給讀者練習題，再拿報紙雜紙的文章片段說明哪個對哪個錯，跟着還有每組字由甲骨文、篆、隸至現今的楷書。不過最重要的不是這些，而是每個字在幾本大字典內的解釋，將其分類並列以作比較，有時還會加上圖解說明哪個字的字義較闊或較窄。最令我覺得這個作者有正確治學態度的地方，還是他在自序中承認取材時只參考了一些大陸的字典而沒有參考臺灣的，提醒讀者可能會有偏頗的地方。這才是做學問的人。

當然，如果說是觀點與角度，我大可以找理由來倒轉抬高或貶低兩本書。不過關鍵是，我用錢買書是為了學東西，不是為了看人發牢騷的。不單是浪費金錢，連看內容的時間也一併浪費了。

前天買了一本書，是談及中國人的姓氏和取名由來的。以往在中學做過一個 project，題目正是這個。那個是我在中學極少數用盡心力去做的 project 之一，花了整個月到各圖書館找相關的書 (這類書連在圖書館也很難找得到)，甚至要找古籍看，結果到最後出來做 presentation，自己也甚為滿意。還記得小明問我是否對這個題目很有興趣，雖然是不太熟，但她也很了解我哩。

不過這本書【漢語人名文化放談】的角度很不同，不是一般談姓氏的書般，只講及人名、出處；它更從中文的修辭性質 (例如比喻、引用等等) 看古今中國人為甚麼改某個名字，有甚麼用意；身為人父母的，往往都為某個原因為子女改某個名字，可能是希望仿傚古人，或者表示某種意境，甚至是表示期望子女將來成就某種事。這本書着重於應用，不像其它書般都是作為研究用途，也不是像那些風水書般玄之又玄。

本來只是想重溫一下以往的資料搜集的，原意達不到，但反而可以開一下眼界，這是買書時沒想到的。