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I was doing a paper on East Asians languages and number systems. I thought some of the ‘non-Asians’ would find my paper interesting since we all know 'Asians' are good at maths. Right? I’ll rewrite my paper in the most simplest form, in math~.
East Asian languages have a logical numeric pattern. Using this pattern East Asian children subconsciously learn how to do basic arithmetic when they are learning how to count.
Let's look at the English number system
Twelve = 12
An English child has to associate the word 'twelve' with a value '12'. Not only that the child has to associate words with value from one to twenty.
Let's look at the East Asian number system
十 = 10
二 = 2
十二 = 12
An East Asian child associates 十 with 10 and 二 with 2.
An East Asian child says the word 十 (10) first followed by the word 二 (2) thus making the word 十二 (12)
Through just saying the word 十二, the child learns basic addition. 十 + 二 = 十二 i.e. 10 + 2 = 12
When an English child has learned how to count to 20, An East Asian child has learned concept of adding two numbers together.
Of course when an English child learns twenty-one
The English child will start to understand the concept of addition.
Twenty = 20
One = 1
Twenty-One = Twenty + One i.e. 20 + 1
However, by this time an East Asian child has already learned basic multiplication
二 = 2
十 = 10
一 = 1
An East Asian child says the word 二 (2) followed by the word 十 (10) then followed by the word 一 (1) thus making the word 二十一 (21).
In order say 21, the child must understand the basic concept of Arabic numerals.
* 2 followed by 10 is now 20 But why?
* 20 followed by 1 = 21 Because of the previous rule of adding two numbers
The child subconsciously figures out 2 followed by 10 means the numbers are base 10.
i.e. 2 x 10 = 20
20 + 1 = 21
So 二十一 (21):
二 (2) follow by 十 (10)
二 (2) x 十 (10) = 二十
And using the previous rule 二十 (20) + 一 (1) = 二十一 (21)
When does an English child learn this new concept? When they reach one hundred.
One hundred = 1 x 100
Two hundred = 2 x 100
Two hundred One = 2 x 100 + 1
Once the English number system reaches one hundred, it uses the same "wording" as the East Asian number system.
Now look at the stage of the development
Infancy – Basic Counting
Preschool – upto 20
Early Schooling – counts up to 100
An English child has little to no concept of Arabic until public school, while an Asian Child has already understood that the Arabic number system uses base 10 number system.
What is more interesting is concept of substraction.
Going back to previous example of twelve. An English child does not understand the concept of base 10 system. This means an English child only looks at twelve as 12 not 10 + 2. If you ask the child to take away 2 from 12, the child is likely to count his fingers, and realise that he only has 10 fingers. If the child was somehow gifted and visualised 12 objects and removed two from it, it still does not change the fact the child has no concept of the 10 base number system. The English child has to be told that ‘twelve’ minus ‘two’ is ‘ten’ (The words ten and two are hard to associate with twelve since it’s a different “word”. What is even more frustrating ~ tw- is in front of the word, not at the back).
If the same question was to be asked towards an East Asian child, either the child will figure out that the answer is 10 by dissecting the word 十二 (十二 - 二 = 十) or after the answer is given, s/he will figure out that they can dissect the word 十二 into 十 and 二.
So in order for an English Child to have the same mathematical reasoning skill as an East Asian child, when the East Asian Child learns to count to 11 the English Child must learn how to count to 21 and when the East Asian child learns to count to 21 the English Child must learn to count to 101.
So what does this all mean? It’s quite simple; East Asians are not natural mathematicians. Or rather a fault in the English language creates a barrier for English speakers from learning mathematical reasoning at early age.
Do not be discouraged because there are other people who seem to be better than you at math. Just put that extra effort into it. You could beat them because they may not be as smart as you think they are~
Thanks for reading guys, Ooni.
 
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This is really great.
There is a chapter on this in "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It's not a great book, but it's good and you bring up some ideas he doesnt.
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Cool. In french you say quatre vingt (four times 20) when you say 80 and quatre vingt dix (four times 20 10) when you say 90 
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Either that or my parents forced me to memorize the multiplication table when I was 4. And then they started brining home math workbooks.
Can't beat an early start
On July 09 2010 04:13 ella_guru wrote:
There is a chapter on this in "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It's not a great book, but it's good and you bring up some ideas he doesnt.
Good read too ^.^
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Yea, I remember reading this in "Outliers" also. Still interesting nonetheless 
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l10f
United States3241 Posts
On July 09 2010 04:18 LSB wrote:Either that or my parents forced me to memorize the multiplication table when I was 4. And then they started brining home math workbooks. Can't beat an early start Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 04:13 ella_guru wrote:
There is a chapter on this in "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It's not a great book, but it's good and you bring up some ideas he doesnt. Good read too ^.^
This. Korean parents make you memorize your multiplication table before you even learn to speak :<
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On July 09 2010 04:19 l10f wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 04:18 LSB wrote:Either that or my parents forced me to memorize the multiplication table when I was 4. And then they started brining home math workbooks. Can't beat an early start On July 09 2010 04:13 ella_guru wrote:
There is a chapter on this in "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It's not a great book, but it's good and you bring up some ideas he doesnt. Good read too ^.^ This. Korean parents make you memorize your multiplication table before you even learn to speak :<
hahah mine didn't. I still aced math though. actually got 100% in math for HSC. But you know, Korean bro, everyone gets 100% in math here if you are korean. ^_^
On July 09 2010 04:13 ella_guru wrote:
This is really great.
There is a chapter on this in "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It's not a great book, but it's good and you bring up some ideas he doesnt.
I really got to read these books. The thing is I like novels ...T___T...
To feed my brain with valuable information I usually watch documentaries.
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Roffles
Pitcairn19291 Posts
Hmm, nice read. Always thought it was cause they drilled us to do so much practice work that it became ingrained into my memory.
Had my multiplication tables drilled in when I was like 5. Just practice. Always thought that was the East Asian method. The more problems you see, you'll see all types of problems and be able to regurgitate them when needed.
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Canada5652 Posts
i think it's an interesting idea but probably has little to do with truth 
for example russian language is probably worse than english in this respect (for instance, two hundred isn't "two hundred" although it's close -- 2 is dva, hundred is sto, but 200 isn't dvasto, it's dvesti). worse still, arbitrarily after 500, instead of using 'sto' for hundred, you start using 'sot' instead. yet, russian math skills are still >> ones here
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On July 09 2010 04:27 Roffles wrote:
Hmm, nice read. Always thought it was cause they drilled us to do so much practice work that it became ingrained into my memory.
that helps too but that wouldn't really explain this
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/SAT-math-by-race-ethnicity.png)
Assumming statistics are correct and most of Asian Americans that do well in math are 1.5 or 2nd generation.
On July 09 2010 04:29 JeeJee wrote:i think it's an interesting idea but probably has little to do with truth for example russian language is probably worse than english in this respect (for instance, two hundred isn't "two hundred" although it's close -- 2 is dva, hundred is sto, but 200 isn't dvasto, it's dvesti). worse still, arbitrarily after 500, instead of using 'sto' for hundred, you start using 'sot' instead. yet, russian math skills are still >> ones here
We don't actually mean math theory. We mean math as in schooling. If you think about it Germans have great mathmaticians if not one of the bests in the world but not many of them are good at math during schooling. And yes I know Germans!
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I never had to memorize multiplication tables or anything. No memorization, just lots of logic and puzzling things out. I got all that from my caucasian dad, my Asian mother is useless at math. Dad was teaching me exponents and roots in first grade, so much fun learning from him.
Hmmm I guess that makes me an outlier, never mind me then 
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I was forced to memorize the multiplication table even before i started school.Yet somehow i still suck at maths.i just hope i don't fail my HSC maths exam.
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Canada5652 Posts
On July 09 2010 04:31 ooni wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 04:27 Roffles wrote:
Hmm, nice read. Always thought it was cause they drilled us to do so much practice work that it became ingrained into my memory. that helps too but that wouldn't really explain this Assumming statistics are correct and most of Asian Americans that do well in math are 1.5 or 2nd generation. Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 04:29 JeeJee wrote:i think it's an interesting idea but probably has little to do with truth for example russian language is probably worse than english in this respect (for instance, two hundred isn't "two hundred" although it's close -- 2 is dva, hundred is sto, but 200 isn't dvasto, it's dvesti). worse still, arbitrarily after 500, instead of using 'sto' for hundred, you start using 'sot' instead. yet, russian math skills are still >> ones here We don't actually mean math theory. We mean math as in schooling. If you think about it Germans have great mathmaticians if not one of the bests in the world but not many of them are good at math during schooling. Yes I know Germans!
yes i was referring to math during school. in russia for example, it's like 2 years ahead of canada, at any grade pretty much. probably similar to math in china. but this has nothing to do with having language teach you multiplication or addition, because as shown, the russian language is arguably worse than english in this respect.
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im happy to know of this theory, being asian myself
it's also that asian parents' drilling math practice problems outside schoolwork contributes. and i'm not entirely sure on this, but i think that speaking learning both your native language and english at a young age helps with any sort of brain activity, and thus helps with math.
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On July 09 2010 04:31 ooni wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 04:27 Roffles wrote:
Hmm, nice read. Always thought it was cause they drilled us to do so much practice work that it became ingrained into my memory. that helps too but that wouldn't really explain this Assumming statistics are correct and most of Asian Americans that do well in math are 1.5 or 2nd generation. Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 04:29 JeeJee wrote:i think it's an interesting idea but probably has little to do with truth for example russian language is probably worse than english in this respect (for instance, two hundred isn't "two hundred" although it's close -- 2 is dva, hundred is sto, but 200 isn't dvasto, it's dvesti). worse still, arbitrarily after 500, instead of using 'sto' for hundred, you start using 'sot' instead. yet, russian math skills are still >> ones here We don't actually mean math theory. We mean math as in schooling. If you think about it Germans have great mathmaticians if not one of the bests in the world but not many of them are good at math during schooling. And yes I know Germans!
Do you honestly think your simplistic explanation accounts for that graph? A slight linguistic difference that may or may not even exist in Asian immigrant households makes their performance in a highschool aged test that much better? How do you explain the black children performing so poorly? They are learning the same numbers as the white kids when they grow up.
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thats all fine and dandy, but i think the real reason why "asians are better at math" is the parenting culture that puts alot of emphasis on education.
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This is interesting but probably has little effect compared to asian-style math drilling/kumon etc.
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also, the mindset of learning is of importance.
Asian cultures have a deep root in learning and im sure love teaching that to their kids, where as where I live kids in high school can barely if at all do simple algebra or multiply fractions.
TVs set to mindless bullshit, bad parents and the idea that you dont want to be a nerd who knows a lot of stuff is just rotting young minds.
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Asians are good at math because their parents discipline them more for studying. I'm black and aced my math SAT, SAT2, and AP because my parents made education a priority. It's misleading to place "race" scores side-by-side when the real gap is across household income levels and based on the education level of your parents.
By your argument of linguistic determination, I could similarly conclude that English-speakers are naturally stronger in biology, Germans in chemistry and physics, and Jews in CS, but it is really a very trivial matter aside from the fact that you're talking about indoctrination at a very young age - if you teach children anything early you're going to see good results.
This is a hypothesis, but doesn't prove much until you provide us a double-blind controlled study placed alongside competing influences with a significant r coefficient.
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Never thought about it that way, cool stuff.
I didn't get drilled on my multiplication tables until I was 7. My dad told me I had to memorize it in order for him to take me see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Needless to say the multiplication came naturally from there.
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EPT
