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> Aside from that, english is just such a meh language. Asian kids get higher math scores in part because mandarin's numbering system actually makes sense ('ele
by tuxxy 6y ago
> Aside from that, english is just such a meh language. Asian kids get higher math scores in part because mandarin's numbering system actually makes sense ('eleven, twelve, thirteen' don't include the words one, two, or three, while the numerical representations include 1, 2, 3).
This doesn't represent a fact of any sort of linguistic truth whatsoever.
- _4jlx 6y agoThese are research findings, not my own ideas: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-best-language-for-math-1410304008 https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-best-language-for-math-1410...
- nix23 6y ago>Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Turkish use simpler number words and express math concepts more clearly than English Than English...that article is complete bullshit, the Inuits have 30 different words for snow = more information density, but is it usable for every culture?
- bobbyz 6y agoCan you elaborate on how having 30 words for snow affects a language's information density?
- nix23 6y agoEnglish needs maybe 4-5 five words to describe a particular snow condition (hard crust but underneath soft and wet), Inuits have one single word for that exact snow-condition therefore a higher information density (for that situation)
- _4jlx 6y agoThis is not the information density we are referring to.
- wenc 6y agoThis idea has been floating around for decades (wouldn't surprise me some researchers decided to test it), but its exact claims are only around ease of counting and arithmetic (the very basic levels), not mathematics as a whole. Ease of counting numerals doesn't necessarily translate to overall mathematical ability. French and Russian have fairly complicated numerals, but many of the world's best mathematicians also happen to be French and Russian speaking... and of course, English speaking. At the higher levels of mathematics, abstract thinking becomes more important than arithmetic. It's not obvious to me that facility at arithmetic is necessarily advantageous then. In fact, I wonder if highly inflected languages (Latin-derived) or those with complex grammars (Hungarian, Slavic) train the brain to work with symbols more efficiently.
- bobbyz 6y agoYou may be right about the abstract thinking, but if we're talking strictly in terms of PISA test scores, Russia and France performed only slightly above average in a fairly recent year. However, I acknowledge that measuring mathematical proficiency with test scores alone is flawed.