11–20 of 37 posts
Sounds fishy to me. In german, numbers are logical but excruciatingly long to say in words. There's no huge lag in german math skills because it takes a little longer to say the numbers than in english.
Eins zwei drei
Hundert drei und zvanzig
Logical? (hope I didn't make a mistake there...)
Sounds fishy to me. In german, numbers are logical but excruciatingly long to say in words. There's no huge lag in german math skills because it takes a little longer to say the numbers than in english.
123 Eins zwei drei Hundert drei und zvanzig Logical? (hope I didn't make a mistake there...)
I'd be interested to see some data on how children learning math in Hindi do, because the numbers are even less regular, enough so that even though there's a pattern, you still have to learn all the numbers from 1-100 individually. There are also more specific words for different fractions, such as a word for 3/4 that sounds nothing like the word for 1/4. http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/language/number/hindi.html http…
i am currently learning japanese and can agree about the numbers being syllablically small.. but this language has it own complexities - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counters which require a speaker to think a lot as well
I'd be interested to see some data on how children learning math in Hindi do, because the numbers are even less regular, enough so that even though there's a pattern, you still have to learn all the numbers from 1-100 individually. There are also more specific words for different fractions, such as a word for 3/4 that sounds nothing like the word for 1/4. http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/language/number/hindi.html http…
most schools in urban india and a large number of the rest are 'english-medium'.. which means i learnt math in math class (in english) and learnt to count in hindi in hindi class.. but never had to solve a math problem in hindi i am currently learning japanese and can agree about the numbers being syllablically small.. but this language has it own complexities - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counters which re…
May be the article is true only for numbers in the CJK (Chinese-Japense-Korean) languages.
Atleast in the 3 Indian languages I know, numbers are bad in all of them - as bad as it is in English.
prove the third:
A simpler number system vocabulary allows children to count at a younger age.
This may be true, but he implies it as fact, without even granting that they may be other factors at work. Like a better education system perhaps.
Interesting article overall, but I found the following a little spurious: >For fractions, we say three fifths. The Chinese is literally, 'out of five parts, take three.' That's telling you conceptually what a fraction is. It's differentiating the denominator and the numerator. It's not obvious to me that one is better than the other, and he's not providing data to support such a claim. Is it just me, or is he just pl…
I'm Chinese myself, and I think there might be a simpler reason. Our schools public schools are way tougher. I'm talking 7 am to 5 pm, non stop learning hard. We're talking about doing trig in the sixth grade and calculus in middle school.
Those are the kinds of schools our parents went to and those are the kinds of schools they send their kids to. Instead of soccer practice or baseball games we take more math classes.
Also explains why we tend to suck at sports.
From my experience the difference in ability stems more from culture than from genetics.
According to this logic, shouldn't kids from Kansas or Iowa do way better in math? I'm Chinese myself, and I think there might be a simpler reason. Our schools public schools are way tougher. I'm talking 7 am to 5 pm, non stop learning hard. We're talking about doing trig in the sixth grade and calculus in middle school. Those are the kinds of schools our parents went to and those are the kinds of schools they send t…
This is actually his point: the chapter from which this excerpt is taken is from the second half of the book, which is all about how our behavior (and thus our performance) is profoundly influenced by our cultural heritage. There's a great chapter, for instance, on how cultural differences regarding deference to authority resulted in Korean Air's high crash rate in the 90's.
There's no mention of the rice paddies in this excerpt, but Gladwell argues that rice paddy cultivation was considerably more complex and required considerably more labor than typical farming practices in the West, a long history of which resulted in a culture of persistence. (Which might explain just why Asian public schools are way tougher.)
Sounds fishy to me. In german, numbers are logical but excruciatingly long to say in words. There's no huge lag in german math skills because it takes a little longer to say the numbers than in english.
123 Eins zwei drei Hundert drei und zvanzig Logical? (hope I didn't make a mistake there...)
Ah yes, another hack who believes math is all about memorization and fast arithmetic. Who cares if our 7 year olds can add slower? We all add the same speed once we lift the calculator ban. And once you start doing real (abstract) math, this memorization advantage becomes completely useless. I'll believe the "Chinese Math Dominance" story when I see it.
You're not reading the hypothesis correctly: Asian children, by contrast, don't face nearly that same sense of bafflement... maybe that makes them a little more likely to enjoy math, and maybe because they enjoy math a little more they try a little harder and take more math classes and are more willing to do their homework, and on and on, in a kind of virtuous circle. The argument is not that the clarity of the Chine…
DeFrancis was the undisputed pre-eminent sinologist of his time, however many of the literacy claims are unfounded. The truth of it is, China is a huge country, full of people speaking dozens of different languages and the Chinese writing system has helped its cohesion.
As a 6-year resident of Taiwan, I feel I have some capacity to comment on this. Here we use traditional characters, which are more complex than those currently in use in China, and despite not being as economically developed as the US, Taiwan has a higher literacy rate. Japan does, too. For that matter, China's literacy rate is higher than other countries with similar levels of economic development, such as Brazil.
Using characters entails some disadvantages, but also allows for some benefits, such as increased reading speed and clearer differentiation of homonyms.
FYI Moser has long since conquered his difficulties and become a literate Chinese reader.