Learning math is easier in some languages

From The Christian Science Monitor


My family is planning a trip to Japan, and I’m trying to learn a bit of the language before we go. The textbook I bought begins by teaching counting, and I have been struck by how precisely Japanese encodes the base-10 number system used by most cultures around the world. When my children were learning math in elementary school, they spent a long time working on place value, gaining an intuitive understanding that, for example, 4,596 is made up of 4 thousands, 5 hundreds, 9 tens, and 6 ones. The Japanese word for this number makes it perfectly clear: yon sen go hyaku kyuu juu roku, or “4 thousand, 5 hundred, 9 ten, 6.”

English is pretty good at highlighting our decimal number system, too, but sometimes it muddies the waters. The words ninety and fifty resemble “nine tens” and “five tens,” but there’s just enough difference to obscure the connection. The teens are even worse. Logically, seventeen and eighteen should be “teen seven” (or even better, “ten seven”) and “teen eight,” just as they are in Japanese (juu nana and juu hachi). And don’t get me started on eleven (juu ichi, or “10+1” in Japanese).

I started to wonder, does this clear correspondence make it easier for children to learn math in Japanese? Karen Fuson and Yeping Li, professors of math education, argue that it does. Their studies have shown that numeracy (fluency with numbers and arithmetic) is easier to achieve in languages where numbers are “more transparent” in announcing their place value. Japanese is not the only language to reflect the base-10 system so clearly – Chinese, Korean, and Turkish do as well.

While English-speaking children still learn math perfectly well, words for numbers like eleven, seventeen, and fifty are stumbling blocks. “These may seem like small issues,” says Professor Fuson, “but the additional mental steps needed to solve problems cause more errors and drain working memory capacity.”

COMMENT:-

Good Post !!!!!!!!!!!! We should be willing as a people to "want to learn from other nations"... and if they have a more clearly defined system, then we should embrace it. we added these modified suffix's to things. "why" ... is probably an entire subject in and of itself.

I've been to both countries and met people in these location who seem to find means to grasp what each other is saying, even if they come from the array of different countries you mentioned; and I listen to the efficiency in how they converse. at first I thought it to be 'incomplete', but after engaging, it is more specific in regard to what is inquired. They basically elaborate in a perspective based expanse, because they grasp the "individual valuation" of particulars. They also want to know why, one is inquiring, I don't know the detailed reason, but I would ponder to think.. it is so they can reply with specific particulars. I noted they too have a broader capacity to use words that are not the general one syllable basic words that people are taught here. They use words that in some segment of society in America, people would be accused of using "big words".

One has to consider their conduct when it comes to reproductions. It has long demonstrated their ability to decipher a product and masterfully recreate it, and to make improved modification to it.
The Japanese in specific... are today, very inventive.

RealityNow said:

Good Post !!!!!!!!!!!! We should be willing as a people to "want to learn from other nations"... and if they have a more clearly defined system, then we should embrace it. we added these modified suffix's to things. "why" ... is probably an entire subject in and of itself.

I've been to both countries and met people in these location who seem to find means to grasp what each other is saying, even if they come from the array of different countries you mentioned; and I listen to the efficiency in how they converse. at first I thought it to be 'incomplete', but after engaging, it is more specific in regard to what is inquired. They basically elaborate in a perspective based expanse, because they grasp the "individual valuation" of particulars. They also want to know why, one is inquiring, I don't know the detailed reason, but I would ponder to think.. it is so they can reply with specific particulars. I noted they too have a broader capacity to use words that are not the general one syllable basic words that people are taught here. They use words that in some segment of society in America, people would be accused of using "big words".

One has to consider their conduct when it comes to reproductions. It has long demonstrated their ability to decipher a product and masterfully recreate it, and to make improved modification to it.
The Japanese in specific... are today, very inventive.

Click to expand...

Thank you, I found the article interesting (and not simply because neither Donald Trump, nor Hillary Clinton, Democrats, Republicans, "conservatives", "liberals" "Barack Obama" or anything else of that nature was discussed in it) and hoped that one or two others might find it interesting as well.

So far, I'm waiting for the second.