# Question for left-handed Hebrew/Arabic speaking Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972 "2003-05-13T15:31:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/1 "2003-05-13T15:31:51Z")
I’m left-handed, and my whole life I’ve had to be careful not to make a huge mess when I write or paint with any kind of medium that smears. Pencils? Complete disaster. Fountain pens? Even worse. Felt-tip pens are marginally better, and even ballpoints leave me with ink all over the side of my hand. Just imagine being an English-speaking left-handed calligrapher; it’s very frustrating. So it occurred to me that it would be so much neater to deal with a language that is written right-to-left, like Hebrew or Arabic. Does this mean that the right-handed majority in the Middle East are the ones who end up with ink all over the place? Or have they found some mysterious solution that they have been keeping from the rest of the world? ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/2 "2003-05-13T15:48:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > **I’m left-handed, and my whole life I’ve had to be careful not to make a huge mess when I write or paint with any kind of medium that smears.** Me too. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > **Does this mean that the right-handed majority in the Middle East are the ones who end up with ink all over the place?** Yes. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > \*\*Or have they found some mysterious solution that they have been keeping from the rest of the world? \*\* Nope. ;j ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/3 "2003-05-13T17:37:05Z")
Writing Hebrew left-handed is GREAT! Cleanest homework I’ve ever handed in! ---
**Author:** ![InquisitiveIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3ec8ea/32.png) [@InquisitiveIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InquisitiveIdiot)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/4 "2003-05-13T19:03:33Z")
Try traditional japanese. Written top to bottom; everyone’s happy. Except that poor guy who writes with his mouth. ---
**Author:** ![MHand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@MHand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MHand)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/5 "2003-05-13T20:26:12Z")
I’m not sure if there’s any factual basis for this, but I remember hearing from someone that older written languages, which were originally written on stone, are written from right-to-left, because its easier for the majority right-handers to hammer-and-chisel stone from right-to-left. Newer languages, which originated on paper-ink mediums, are written from left-to-right. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/6 "2003-05-13T21:18:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Try traditional japanese. Written top to bottom; everyone’s happy. Except that poor guy who writes with his mouth. But what happens when you get to the end of a column? Is the next column to the right or left of the previous one? ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/7 "2003-05-13T22:08:11Z")
**Chronos** –Japanese, Chinese and Korean are written traditionally from top-to-bottom, left-to-right. So lefties, while not as badly off as with Roman, Greek, Cyrillic and a number of other left-to-right scripts, are still at a slight disadvantage. I’m a rightie who doodles in Arabic script all the time, and I’ve never smeared a drop of ink. It must be because my pen is almost vertical (about a 75-degree angle towards my head) and my hand is fairly kinked, so that it doesn’t make any contact with the paper until several lines later, when the ink is presumably dry. I’ve written with my left before, and it’s similarly kinked. Oddly enough, I haven’t gotten a case of writer’s cramp in at least a year. ---
**Author:** ![gypsymoth3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@gypsymoth3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gypsymoth3)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/8 "2003-05-13T22:27:07Z")
i’m a lefty too, but i don’t use expensive pens… just the BIC or CVS ones. and as for pencil, that washes off. i heard somewhere that some left-handed woman in history put powder on her hand to prevent the ink problem. i guess baby powder might work. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/9 "2003-05-14T00:19:07Z")
I’m right-handed and I’ve taken a LOT of Hebrew and some Arabic. I can’t remember ever fretting about getting ink on my hands. How big a deal is that going to be anyway? ---
**Author:** ![ike9898](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ike9898](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ike9898)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/10 "2003-05-14T22:10:27Z")
Is the percentage of lefties higher in Arabic-speaking coutries? I guess you would only want to count literate people in those countries. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/11 "2003-05-15T09:48:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > So it occurred to me that it would be so much neater to deal with a language that is written right-to-left, like Hebrew or Arabic. Does this mean that the right-handed majority in the Middle East are the ones who end up with ink all over the place? Or have they found some mysterious solution that they have been keeping from the rest of the world? Never had a problem myself, actually my handwriting is much better in Arabic than English. Regretably Arabic script influences have come to creep into my English/Roman character writing. As to the quesiton in re lefties, there is no reason to presume higher rates of left handedness than globally extent, but even so, given left handedness is disfavored, many switch or are forced to switch to right handed usage. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/12 "2003-05-15T11:41:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lodrain \* > \*\ ***Chronos** –Japanese, Chinese and Korean are written traditionally from top-to-bottom, left-to-right. So lefties, while not as badly off as with Roman, Greek, Cyrillic and a number of other left-to-right scripts, are still at a slight disadvantage. > \*\* Erm… no. They were (and in the case of Japanese, still is) written top-to-bottom, _right-to-left_. Lefties are somewhat at an advantage, if it wasn’t for the fact that traditionally, people used brushes to write those languages and you don’t rest your hand on the paper when properly writing with a brush. (Japanese books, like Hebrew and Arabic ones open the opposite way from English books.) Note that this is _traditionally_. Simplified Chinese, used in mainland China is written left-to-right. While Japanese novels, newspapers, manga, and some magazines are written top-to-bottom, more technical texts are usually written left-to-right, horizontally. When handwriting, nowadays, people also tend to write left-to-right. (More convenient when writing with a pen or pencil.) Top-to-bottom is almost reserved for “formal” handwriting, i.e. letters and school compositions. Japanese can also be written horizontally, _right-to-left_. The use for this writing order is limited and the rule is that there cannot be more than one line. In my experience writing right-to-left is only marginally messier than the other way around (I’m a rightie). ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-left-handed-hebrew-arabic-speaking-dopers/174972/13 "2003-05-15T11:48:50Z")
Yestarday I had to write something in a tiny (long but thin) gap on a whiteboard, with an ultrasmear pen (you so much as breath on it and it smears) so I had to contort my hand and ‘rest’ it in mid air (usually it is rested on something to stabilize it) I wrote what I needed to write, and it looked \*_better?!_ than my normal handwriting :eek: