Native language affects math skills?

[AssKissinger]

Do you think your native language can have an impact on your ability to do math?

[American Oyaji]

Yes. But I dont think it matters if it is native or not, it matters which languages you know.

I think Japanese and Chinese enhance mathematical skills. And I don't think it is the SPOKEN languages so much as the WRITTEN one.

[omae mona]

Do you think your native language can have an impact on your ability to do math?

Sure, but only indirectly. Your native language probably is an indicator of which country you were educated in, and THAT has an impact on your ability to do math.

'Fess up, what's your theory? Japanese speakers are better at math than English speakers? It's actually a pretty interesting question, but I think it would be darn hard to prove that the language itself was the deciding factor. I think you'd have to put people speaking different languages through the same kind of math education.

[AssKissinger]

Sure, but only indirectly. Your native language probably is an indicator of which country you were educated in, and THAT has an impact on your ability to do math.

'Fess up, what's your theory? Japanese speakers are better at math than English speakers? It's actually a pretty interesting question, but I think it would be darn hard to prove that the language itself was the deciding factor. I think you'd have to put people speaking different languages through the same kind of math education.

I don't have a theory. I heard someone say that math was easier to learn in Chinese than English and I thought hmmm... that's interesting. I actually have no idea. You're right though, impossible to prove.

I think Japanese is actually more logical than English regarding basic grammar.

[Greji]

I don't have a theory. I heard someone say that math was easier to learn in Chinese than English and I thought hmmm... that's interesting. I actually have no idea. You're right though, impossible to prove.

I think Japanese is actually more logical than English regarding basic grammar.

The only major difference that I have observed is the difference in terms of language. When my daughter first left the Japanese school system to attend school in the US (at grammar school 6th grade), she was farther advanced in math from her school in Japan than the level she entered in the states. As you know math is pumped hard and heavy in the lower levels in Japan. However, she had major difficulty at first until she was able to learn the type of english applied to math and the relevant terms. When she was able to understand it, it was a shock, because she found that the math she was having trouble with was math she had learned as much as two years before in Japan. She just hadn't been able to understand how it was being presented.

As a side issue, I worked with a guy had attended French schools and he always had to stop and make his math calculations by the French system, as he could not do the problem in the same manner as the calculations were performed under the US system. What the difference is, I don't know, but he seemed to make a large show out of it!

[kamome]

I think my math skills would have sucked regardless of the country I was born in. It's probably genetic as well as environmental. My parents are both terrible at math, and I probably inherited their mental block.

[kurohinge1]

... As a side issue, I worked with a guy had attended French schools and he always had to stop and make his math calculations by the French system, as he could not do the problem in the same manner as the calculations were performed under the US system. What the difference is, I don't know, but he seemed to make a large show out of it!

I only know basic French, like "I surrender", but I understand that their counting system is based on 20 (eg: quatre-vingts (80) means "4 times 20", etc) and it apparently gets really hard if someone doesn't have all their fingers and toes!

[maraboutslim]

All I can say is that Japanese happens to be a good language for memorizing numbers - it lends itself to mnemonic devices to remember stupid things like pi to a bunch of places or even when memorizing multiplication facts as a kid. Other than that I'm not aware of any particular advantage.

My wife, my son, and I are all basically billingual in Japanese and English to varying extents and my wife will speak Japanese when helping my son with his math homework and I'll mainly use English (although around here we kind of forget what language we happen to be speaking at any moment so who the hell knows). Anyway...what I'm getting to is that my 7 year old daughter is probably the most equally billingual of our family (for her age of course) and has to learn math in both langauges - in English during the week and then in Japanese on Saturday (at a school run by the Japanese government, using standard elementary curriculum). It's interesting looking at the differences in how they teach it in school.

[Greji]

I only know basic French, like "I surrender", but I understand that their counting system is based on 20 (eg: quatre-vingts (80) means "4 times 20", etc) and it apparently gets really hard if someone doesn't have all their fingers and toes!

I'd be pretty good up to 21, especially with some French help!