Chinese is more difficult to learn than English, according to researchers at the UK based Wellcome Trust and hospitals in Oxford and London. To long-term students of Chinese: 'YES!' The Guardian Newspaper reported on 30 June, 2003 that brain scans showed that English speakers use their left temporal lobes, whereas Mandarin speakers' left and right lobes were illuminated during the scans. They concluded that the tones in Mandarin deliver meaning and that in order to interpret this the right temporal lobe acts - this is also the side which processes melody and intonation, whereas the left temporal lobe is associated with 'piecing sounds together into words'. So, we can conclude that English speakers are only listening with half their brains, and the Chinese, who also emphasise non-verbal communication, not to mention tones, need to use the whole brain to decode messages.
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