I am as smart as a horse!

Arabic script is a difficult thing for a westerner to pick up later in life. (Well at least for this westerner).

The alphabet looks like a bunch of squiggles with dots. And the only differentiator between some letters and others is how many dots and/or whether the dots are above or below the letter.

So when I write a word during my Arabic lessons, I am never quite sure how many dots to put and where to put them.

And we have all seen the horse that can do arithmetic. Its trainer will say:

• how much is 2+2
• the horse will clop 4 times
• how much is 2 +3
• the horse will clop 5 times.

One theory on this is that the trainer is tense while the horse is clopping and relaxes when the horse reaches the correct number of clops and the horse “senses” this and stops.

I am sure you can see where this is going.

So I write a letter and I know it needs some level of dot-ing. I move my hand to the top of the letter and cast a sideways glance at my tutor…

Nope! not above below!

I move my hand below the letter and I put one dot and look at my tutor..

NOPE! 2 dots.

The trainer, err, tutor relaxes.

I am a very clever horse.