6 ms·

Another article that was published a while ago had an interesting take on it. There is a quite high correlation between numbering system of a language and how q

Another article that was published a while ago had an interesting take on it. There is a quite high correlation between numbering system of a language and how quickly/well kids speaking that language learn counting and math skills. Apparently, the article itself is taken down, but I found an archived version. https://web.archive.org/web/20141215072819/http://playthink.wordpress.com:80/2008/11/17/gladwell-why-asianchildren-are-better-at-maths/ https://web.archive.org/web/20141215072819/http://playthink....

pbhjpbhj 9y ago
It seems that a child will perhaps learn to count quicker in Japanese than in French, say, but the complexity and inclusion of factors/compounds also seem like they would push a more complex understanding of number to be adopted. I wonder if a French people make change with 20 Euro-cent coins more often than others do.
- Moru 9y ago
  I bet they use card instead... In Germany you stand in line waiting for everyone to find exactly the right change, be them young or old. Most people pay with cash even though it seems to get more common to use card. Euro has at least eight different coins. Sweden has 1, 2, 5, 10 as coins but most people still pay with card because it's easier and people are not burned by the big brother syndrome of the WW1/2 :-) Would be interesting to see relative difficulty of each language, some of them are pretty close and have very similar difficulty while others are close but widely different difficulty.
  - hmd_imputer 9y ago
    Another Germany related comment today. Made my day :) It really becomes annoying when you have to wait a minute because an old lady needs to count all her coins in Lidl. Back to the original topic, as someone who can speak a few languages, I find the arguments stated in the article quite interesting. Obviously, just because one speaks Chinese doesn't mean they will definitely be a wunder-kind in math. Yet, it plays an important role in speeding up the learning process.
    - Moru 9y ago
      It's not only old ladies that have to count their coins, everyone young or old stands there with the head deep down over the purse trying to find those microscopic coins :-)
kmm 9y ago
Maybe it's been taken down because it reeks of bad linguistics and bad anthropology. Not to mention the obvious that being good at counting doesn't make one good at academic subjects. I studied math and didn't see a number larger than 10 after I got my BSc.
- paganel 9y ago
  > I studied math and didn't see a number larger than 10 after I got my BSc. Presumably you were not a kid anymore at that time. The OP was mentioning about how easy is for kids to acquire/improve their maths skills if counting is made easier by the language itself. That probably doesn't correlate that well with those kids' academic performances 15 or 20 years later, but that was not the point.
FabHK 9y ago
There are a few articles linked on the bottom of the page (dead links unfortunately) that purport to show the same. > "Surprisingly enough, it's proven that Chinese-speaking children are better at counting numbers than English-speaking counterparts because of their language. Bilingual children are better at counting when they think in Chinese than in English. The irregularity of the English number system makes it harder for children to count numbers properly." Not sure I'd give much credence to that hypothesis, though. Hard to disentangle the many factors influencing the results. Having said that, the Chinese numbers are pleasantly short and logical, by and large. English has the advantage again in big numbers, where we have million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, etc., with the Latin prefix N indicating 10^6N (long scale, old British usage and continental Europe) or 10^(3+3N) (short scale, American usage). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
- vixen99 9y ago
  If the questionable hypothesis is correct, this would surely factor into the assessment of numerical IQ.
hinkley 9y ago
There’s a whole theory of learning that suggested that some languages were more suited to mental gymnastics for a particular field of study (math, logic, biology) and that maybe we could further human progress by teaching children the curriculum in that language.

pbhjpbhj 9y ago

It seems that a child will perhaps learn to count quicker in Japanese than in French, say, but the complexity and inclusion of factors/compounds also seem like they would push a more complex understanding of number to be adopted. I wonder if a French people make change with 20 Euro-cent coins more often than others do.

Moru 9y ago
I bet they use card instead... In Germany you stand in line waiting for everyone to find exactly the right change, be them young or old. Most people pay with cash even though it seems to get more common to use card. Euro has at least eight different coins. Sweden has 1, 2, 5, 10 as coins but most people still pay with card because it's easier and people are not burned by the big brother syndrome of the WW1/2 :-) Would be interesting to see relative difficulty of each language, some of them are pretty close and have very similar difficulty while others are close but widely different difficulty.
- hmd_imputer 9y ago
  Another Germany related comment today. Made my day :) It really becomes annoying when you have to wait a minute because an old lady needs to count all her coins in Lidl. Back to the original topic, as someone who can speak a few languages, I find the arguments stated in the article quite interesting. Obviously, just because one speaks Chinese doesn't mean they will definitely be a wunder-kind in math. Yet, it plays an important role in speeding up the learning process.
  - Moru 9y ago
    It's not only old ladies that have to count their coins, everyone young or old stands there with the head deep down over the purse trying to find those microscopic coins :-)

kmm 9y ago

Maybe it's been taken down because it reeks of bad linguistics and bad anthropology. Not to mention the obvious that being good at counting doesn't make one good at academic subjects. I studied math and didn't see a number larger than 10 after I got my BSc.

paganel 9y ago
> I studied math and didn't see a number larger than 10 after I got my BSc. Presumably you were not a kid anymore at that time. The OP was mentioning about how easy is for kids to acquire/improve their maths skills if counting is made easier by the language itself. That probably doesn't correlate that well with those kids' academic performances 15 or 20 years later, but that was not the point.

FabHK 9y ago

There are a few articles linked on the bottom of the page (dead links unfortunately) that purport to show the same. > "Surprisingly enough, it's proven that Chinese-speaking children are better at counting numbers than English-speaking counterparts because of their language. Bilingual children are better at counting when they think in Chinese than in English. The irregularity of the English number system makes it harder for children to count numbers properly." Not sure I'd give much credence to that hypothesis, though. Hard to disentangle the many factors influencing the results. Having said that, the Chinese numbers are pleasantly short and logical, by and large. English has the advantage again in big numbers, where we have million, billion, trillion, quadrillion, etc., with the Latin prefix N indicating 10^6N (long scale, old British usage and continental Europe) or 10^(3+3N) (short scale, American usage). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales

vixen99 9y ago
If the questionable hypothesis is correct, this would surely factor into the assessment of numerical IQ.

hinkley 9y ago

There’s a whole theory of learning that suggested that some languages were more suited to mental gymnastics for a particular field of study (math, logic, biology) and that maybe we could further human progress by teaching children the curriculum in that language.