How to break down an unfamiliar script

Why the script comes before words, not after

A word in an unfamiliar script cannot be read at all. A card reading “ސަލާމް — hello” tells you exactly as much as a picture: there is nothing to link the spelling with the pronunciation, and the card is memorized as a drawing, not as a word.

The practical consequence is harsher than it seems: until the script is broken down, all word work runs idle. Two weeks spent on characters pay off on the very first hundred words.

The order

1. First — how it is built. Which way the line runs, whether there are capitals, how vowels are written. In some scripts a vowel is not a letter but a mark on the consonant, and without knowing that, no amount of guessing will take a word apart.
2. A few characters per session. Five to seven new ones plus review of yesterday's. More will not hold: working memory keeps about seven objects, and forty characters on one canvas work like wallpaper, not like a reference.
3. Every character inside a word. A lone letter is memorized poorly: memory has nothing to grip. The word it stands in provides that hold.
4. Return the next day. Testing yourself a day or two later is more useful than on the same day. A lesson that quizzes what was just covered tests short-term memory, not knowledge.
5. Look-alike characters — together and on purpose. Confusable pairs must be shown together. Spread across different days, they remain two separately learned characters that get mixed up on meeting.

What to expect

After a week most characters are recognized, but reading goes letter by letter and slowly. It is a normal stage, and it passes not from effort but from the amount read.

After two or three weeks a sign reads in full, though the meaning usually stays unclear. That is exactly the goal of the first stage: the city stops being a picture.

Fluency arrives over months, unnoticed. Training it separately is unnecessary — it will attach itself to any reading.

What this is based on

Every number above comes from a study, linked next to it. The mark “checked little” means one study stands behind the conclusion — or that researchers still argue about it.

• It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many times
  Adesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
• Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many times
  Donovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
• Mixing different topics inside one session works better than drilling a single one for a long time. Not always, though: on connected texts there is no difference.checked many times
  Brunmair & Richter, 2019, Psychological Bulletin 145(11) · g = 0.42 on average; strongest on topics that resemble each other, and not statistically significant on connected texts.

Next

• Why a word list doesn't stickWhy rereading a word list barely works, what helps instead, and when to return to a word so it stays. With a walkthrough of the research.
• How many words you need to knowHow many words to learn to understand a conversation, and how many to read without a dictionary. And why “I know almost all the words” does not yet mean “I understood everything”.
• Do streaks and rewards helpWhat is proven about gamification in learning, why rewards for participation undermine motivation, and what is known about streaks — an honest walkthrough with numbers and links.
• Is it too late to start as an adultWhat is known about the critical period: the data on 669 thousand people, the criticism of it, and what it means for an adult starting a language from scratch.
• the Armenian languageArmenian — Indo-European family, about 6–7 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: Aybuben — the Armenian alphabet, 39 letters, created in 405 AD.
• the Georgian languageGeorgian — Kartvelian family — no relatives outside it, about 3.7 million speakers (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: Mkhedruli — 33 letters with no capitals, plus the Mtabruli heading style.
• the Maldivian languageMaldivian — Indo-European family, about 350 thousand speakers (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: Thaana — written right to left, with vowels as obligatory marks.