Okay, so one of the things I enjoy doing, when my eyes hurt, or I need to relax, is to write with my eyes closed. I've learned in the years doing this that my fingers know their way around a keyboard, much like a pianist would know their way around their own keyboard. Intuitively. I like writing with my eyes closed, and the only time I'm ever experiencing problems is when I'm using an unfamiliar laptop, or when my fingers hurry too bad, and I can't be sure what letter I typed first. In fact, I'm writing this with my eyes closed.
So, I was aware of the special relationship between my fingers and my keyboard, so was quite surprised to find myself incapacitated when I switched my keyboard to Cyrillic alphabet. I did this for my Russian practice, and while I've become quite good at writing in Russian on my phone, I found I was very slow on my computer. Why? Because my fingers expect other letters to be there, and so while I know how to write the word, and what letters fo where, I have trouble reminding myself that "t" isn't where "t" normally is, but rather where "n" is, and so on. I found it interesting how my fingers kept veering towards the "correct" keyboard layout. In the end, I had to switch back to English, as I was wasting too much time, but I do plan to return to this exercise frequently.
What I found even more interesting, however, was the fact that my fingers also encountered a little difficulty returning to English keyboard, as well. See, though I didn't spend long writing in Russian, already the rewiring process had begun. My brain was in the process of learning a new keyboard layout, and I stopped it dead in the middle. And it got confused. The same thing happens when I'm writing long-hand in class. After a while of writing in Cyrillic, I go to write down a note in English or Romanian, and my brain will write a "t" as a "т", or a "v" as a "в". And I think that's interesting, I think that one day, if I learn enough, and if I use this new alphabet enough, maybe writing in Russian will be as normal to me as English is.
Now, of course, that's also something that seriously worried me since, as a writer, I rely quite heavily on my typing speed and accuracy. So I really can't afford to go forgetting the "proper" layout. Though maybe in time, I can learn to do both...
That sort of thing is really interesting to me. I like observing how our brains work, particularly around all these little things that we take for granted. It's also probably why bilingual individuals fascinate me, particularly when we're looking at a vastly different language and alphabet, as is the case for Russian. Our neighbouring country, Moldova, is bilingual in the sense that most people there speak a mix of Russian and Romanian, with some relying more intensely on one rather than the other. But many of them are able to make the transition flawlessly from Russian to Romanian and vice-versa, and I find that incredible.
Imagine how useful that must be, and how it must serve the development of your brain. See, maybe that's why I've never been able to understand individuals who never learn a second language. Here, for instance, the focus is, understandably, on languages that might be of academic or professional use, like English or German. But even if you speak one of the major languages, you're still missing out on so much by not picking up another language. And maybe, with it, another keyboard.
Anyway, that's all for now. А ВЫ?
