Why Asians are Often Better at Math
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Why Asians are Often Better at Math
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Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#2Interesting, but your ability to memorize sequences of numbers is almost completely irrelevant to your ability to do higher-level math, and the hypothesis that memorization "compounds into more knowledge and better math skills for these Chinese children" is shaky at best. Also, the statement "Asians are better than Americans at math" needs some qualification. Most of the world's best mathematicians come from either the USA or Europe (although there are of course many talented Asian mathematicians, like Tao, Mochizuki, etc).
Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#3Wild speculation.
Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#4What about Asians in the US that speak English?
Title should include "Chinese" not "Asian". The article only references Chinese.
How does pronouncing numbers help with anything more complex than counting?
Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#5Shouldn't the title be revised as 'Why Asians are Often Better at Arithmatic'?
BTW, the way to read out equations and expressions of algebra and calculus feels to me a little alien in Chinese. The English version feels OK.
Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#6Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#7I was kinda skeptical as well, because I actually don't speak much Chinese (even though I learned it at a young age), so I think in English, yet I was very good at math in HS (competitive).
Yet, looking back, I realized that I did think of numbers like "four two" instead of "forty two", so doing calculations like "[four | two] plus [two | eight] equals [six | ten] -> 70". Hence, faster.
It’s actually interesting — I kind of see this article as more of an analogy. I'm don't think it's the main cause of a performance gap, but it definitely could contribute.
Imagine: what if this article was about developing a typical business app with C# vs. C++ — instead of “you can count from 0-10 faster”, it’s “you can manipulate strings faster” (measured in dev time, not CPU cycles).
Developers will switch to newer languages that make it more efficient. Eg, Paul Graham's arguments about how LISP made Viaweb successful.
So, I'm curious. Developers will switch languages because they're more efficient and expressive. But it's hard to switch languages. Not impossible, though.
Will English evolve to become more efficient over time? Or will we all switch to a newer language because it's more efficient?
Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#8Interesting, but your ability to memorize sequences of numbers is almost completely irrelevant to your ability to do higher-level math, and the hypothesis that memorization "compounds into more knowledge and better math skills for these Chinese children" is shaky at best. Also, the statement "Asians are better than Americans at math" needs some qualification. Most of the world's best mathematicians come from either t…
>Interesting, but your ability to memorize sequences of numbers is almost completely irrelevant to your ability to do higher-level math
Your digit span does affect your ability to do mental arithmetic, and mental arithmetic is an indispensable tool when meditating on equations and algorithms so that you can understand their behavior.
Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#9Bill Burr has a comedy bit about exactly this, I was just watching it on Netflix.
Re: Why Asians are Often Better at Math
#10Ironically, French tend to be good at math (they told me so when I was over there). Zero through 69 uses forms similar to counting in English (inferior to Chinese per the OP), and then it goes all wonky. 70 is sixty-ten, 71 is sixty-eleven,... but then 80 is four-twenty, and then 90 is four-twenty-ten, -eleven,... Ouch!
The rational is that they get very good at adding, multiplying, and then simplifying funky numbers in their heads (e.g. 73 + 92 would be sixty-eleven + four-twenty-twelve = hundred-sixty-five). Or maybe they get really good at memorizing addition tables, which would enhance their memorization skills. Or maybe they were just bragging over beer (good beer, excellent wine, très bon food ;-).
Ref: