What explains Asian superiority in certain academic subjects, such as maths?
It is a widespread idea that language influences thought. An example of this is presented by Malcolm Gladwell, in the book "Outliers" (which we recommend you get hold of). Gladwell argues that this superior performance and achievement has little to do with innate ability but more with the structure of language, endowing the East with significant cultural advantages over the West in various academic subjects and spheres of knowledge.
The words for numbers in Asian countries are shorter than they are in English (for example, 208 is 5 syllables in English, 3 in Chinese), enabling kids to retain more numbers in their heads and therefore do calculations faster.
Their number system is also more intuitive than ours. Take 'eleven', for example. In Chinese, it is literally expressed as "ten-one" (twenty is two-tens, twenty-eight is two-tens-eight, and so forth). This enables Chinese children to count all the way up to one hundred at a significantly younger age than English-speaking kids. On average, four-year-old children in China can count to 40. Kids of the same age in the United States only count to 15, and don't get to 40 until they're five. In other words, on average, five-year-old kids in Asia are already one year ahead of their English-speaking counterparts.
The logic behind their number-naming system ("ten-one") also allows them to carry out basic math problems far more easily. For instance, when a child in England is asked "twenty-seven plus forty-two?", he must convert the words to numbers (27+42) in order to find the solution: 7 plus 2 is 9, and 20 and 40 is 60, which equals 69. When Asian children are asked "two-tens-seven and four-tens-two, no translation from words to numbers is necessary, as the solution lies in the sentence itself.
To set yet another example, when dealing with fractions, we commonly say three-fourths. In Chinese, however, this is literally ‘out of four, take three parts'. This way, language is actually conveying the concept in a much more understandable and simple way.
Succinctly, when it comes to maths and numbers, the English language seems awkward and erratic when compared to the instinctive Asian system.
How are numbers expressed in your native language? Do you feel your mother tongue affects your train of thought?
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