How do I use my right brain in writing (A question for the serious Western thinkers)

I have been writing in Chinese for the last 50 years. Now is the time for me to try English. Writing in Chinese is very easy for me. It is just like walking. You will not aware that you are using your foot to walk. Writing is just like spinning. Spinning in the right brain. Though you will not know what is happening there, but surely one thing you know, your thoughts are spinning out something.

How do I know that I am using my right brain?

I have one point, that if I use my left brain, I will know exactly what is going on, I will know what next line I will be writing, I will write according to my plan, but using the right brain, I will not know what I am writing. The spinning seems to be automatic, or driven by some unknown force inside me.

Known and unknown, is the difference of the left and right brain. 

However, what happens inside your right brain IS NOT totally unknown. If so, you might be either a genius or an unqualified writer. For any good writer will know, spinning out something is not enough, you must spin out a straight line, and the line would become an arrow, and the arrow had some object to hit on.  And you hit it. That is a process known to your right brain, it is not unknown. So writing in the right brain is combining the known and the unknown. You will know what is going on, what will be the final result. Just like cooking. You put in some stuff, hoping in a while, your cooker will turn out something. But what is going on inside the cooker, you will not be able to know.

What if I insist on knowing the inside? Well, you might be using your left side of your brain. You will lose your spinning power, your writing will be weak and uninteresting, and though in some form of writing, like drafting the legal document, you need this process, but it will never be an entertaining art.

And now, one question. What if I am writing in another language? To me, English is not my mother tongue, I am not so familiar with this language, am I using my left-brain more to write in English?

If Chinese is my legs, I can forget them in writing. But in English, I found myself is some what crippled. Though I still insist on the same principle in writing: you must have a target, and you must forget the legs (or, forgetting the spinning actions)

What is the difference?

Do I have the ability to find out?

Yes, the Chinese legs are quite different from the spelling languages. Chinese are pictogram. They are mostly right- brained tools. And we are lacking proof here. How do you know the Chinese are right brain tools?  In some studies, when using Chinese, different spots in both the left and right brains are activated. But from the linkage of the graph and the sound, we can guess that the Chinese are mainly a right-brained tool.

Chinese is a non-spelling language. It is more like a sign, then a logical arrangement. And the sigh is basically not connected with a sound. Like the word  “人” , it means a human being, but to pronounce it, you need to “remember” the sound, it sounds like “ren”.  What is the connection between “人” and “ren”?  It is not known. So I have a very weak reason to imagine: possibly, the Chinese are mainly a right brain function.  

Is the Chinese a very bad language? To pronounce is not easy. (or very easy, by using the right brain) In learning other spelling language, pronounce is mush easier. Because you have a method, and the method is known. Now, the connection between sound and sign is unknown.

Now lets allow the hypothesis temporarily, that the Chinese are mainly a right brain language.

And my first question is: will it be easier for me the kind of right-brainer to use Chinese (a right-brain tool)?

And the second question is: will it be more difficult for a right-brainer to use English (a left-brain tool)?

Yes in using Chinese, I am somewhat like skiing. I can skip many things. For the Chinese are mainly a sign language, using a sign is just like using a parable. You will use parables to connect the text, not words to connect them. And there are two kinds of Chinese, one the modern and daily Chinese; the other is Written Classis Chinese. It is the parable of parables.

Actually, the Written Classic Chinese is more like a right –brained tool. Thoughts inside a WCC brain can ski in parables and the thoughts can be represented in a higher level.

It is until now, I can change my first and second questions into a new question.

If I wanted to use my right brain more, what language is best for me?

This is a reversed question. And my object in writing this article is changed here: I am not enquiring how to write in English, but to enquire another more important question:

That for the serious Western thinkers, that if they wanted to probe into the other field of human wisdom, will it be better to use the Chinese language?  Is it a better tool to probe into the right brain, and the right-brained culture?

And my advices are:

1. Do not try to “spell” the sounds in the Roman letters. Try using the direct link between sound and sign. It is a right-brained method.

2. Do not learn the simplified Chinese, it is useless in searching the right-brained culture, learn the Classic Chinese first. The simplified one will come as a marginal return.

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