Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In Asian languages like Chinese, numbers after ten follow a precise logic. Eleven in Mandarin is shi yi or ten-one, twelve is ten-two, thirteen is ten-three, and so forth. When we get to fifty-nine, the logic continues, five-ten-nine. Five tens and a nine, 59. The internal logic in counting numbers with Asian languages results in kids who speak Asian languages are able to count beyond a hundred before English speakers can even count to 40. But the Asian language advantage doesn’t stop in counting. Remember those dreaded fractions? In English we would read 3/4 as three-fourths. But for languages like Chinese, 3/4 is literally translated, “out of 4 parts, take 3″.
When you think how much more sense math makes for Asian-language speakers and considering how many frustrated 3rd graders go home with there hands crossed because multiplication doesn’t make sense. How much fun would math had been if it did make sense? Wouldn’t you do more homework? In turn wouldn’t you pick up new concepts – in which case math heavily depends on learning piece by piece – easier.
While this does not necessarily explain how Asian children brought up in the US with English as their only language do better in math, it helps to explain the difference in those who speak Asian languages as well as English.
Not sure why City data parsed the URL that way as it goes to an article on Asian students.
I did better in math than most of the Asians I knew, and all that knowledge did nothing to me, I never had a chance (outside of school) to do anything with it. The amount of math & sci required to perform real life jobs (including research and engineering) is very small. The question - why invest so much money and efforts in something that has no wide spread social use and that is doomed to be forgotten (unless you are selected few)?
BTW, Asians are really bad with "hands on" skills, with all that knowledge of math & science some of them are really dangerous (and very expensive). Rote learning, passing tests with flying colors, writing up smart sounding BS, putting up with enormous amount of hours spent in the zombi like states, yup that's their strong side. I don't write this to bash Asians. Obviously, those qualities are very advantageous under many circumstances. I just think that it's silly for Americans to be more like Asians. American (and western) "comparative advantage" is imagination, initiative, spontaneity of ideas, small number of the passionate individuals working to make their ideas work. It's very unfortunate that modern public education (and feudalism of universities) destroy American comparative advantage.
I did better in math than most of the Asians I knew, and all that knowledge did nothing to me, I never had a chance (outside of school) to do anything with it. The amount of math & sci required to perform real life jobs (including research and engineering) is very small. The question - why invest so much money and efforts in something that has no wide spread social use and that is doomed to be forgotten (unless you are selected few)?
BTW, Asians are really bad with "hands on" skills, with all that knowledge of math & science some of them are really dangerous (and very expensive). Rote learning, passing tests with flying colors, writing up smart sounding BS, putting up with enormous amount of hours spent in the zombi like states, yup that's their strong side. I don't write this to bash Asians. Obviously, those qualities are very advantageous under many circumstances. I just think that it's silly for Americans to be more like Asians. American (and western) "comparative advantage" is imagination, initiative, spontaneity of ideas, small number of the passionate individuals working to make their ideas work. It's very unfortunate that modern public education (and feudalism of universities) destroy American comparative advantage.
Asians in their home countries are very "diverse" in terms of skills. Talking about the "hands on" skills, which country is the "factory of the world" now?
Japanese and Koreans also make fine gadgets, along with Germans.
They just have NO chance to enter many fields in the US, so they emphasize what they are good at here. It's just like to claim Asians are not good actors because they fail in Hollywood.
The real key to the "miracle" of Asian academic success is selective immigration. The Asian students who tend to do extremely well in US schools come overwhelmingly from the elite of their own societies. Comparing them to the "average" US student is like comparing the average US student to a student bound for Harvard or Yale. None of that is to say Asian students don't work hard. It is just pointing out that many of them are hardly "typical" students.
That just dosesn't hold true for the asian student success rate from poor immigrant disenfranchised communities like chinatown in Manhattan. Those people, earning less than minimum wage, and often illegal, are far from the elite.
Culture is very important. Which really shouldn't be a surprise.
It is mostly culture. Japan did not have mass looting after their tsunami. We always have massive looting after disasters. Some cities worse than others. Children do best when you have structured 2 parent family units & no drug or alcohol abuse. Our culture has been a very destructive environment for children. Some drastic changes have occurred to correct things a bit here, but we need to do more.
November 7, 1991, basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson stuns the world by announcing he tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Within 2 months the number of people getting tested for aids was up 50%. Illegitimate birth rates dropped within 9 months. Heroin & other injected drug use that had been soaring since 1960 slowed their accent.
The country sobered up a bit & quit sharing IV drug needles. People quit having as many orgies, as much sex with strangers & not without protection. Maybe even settled down & married. This must have reduce the financial stress of illegitimate births & drug use, thus lowered the crime rate.
I am asian, immigrated into this country at age 12, I was #1 in my school in Math.
I remember people asked me why and how I did so well, I told them, the level of math they taught me I already took them 2 years earlier, that's why..
i also never use any calculators, did everything in my head, that helps a lot too because i would understand why more in depth how all the calculation works.
US has this thing called "No kids left behind". Very bad idea. They need to teach higher level math and put all the kids who are behind in lower level classes.
Throughout elementary and middle school, my daughter was the "token" caucasian girl in our districts' high gifted math program (one of the top in the country). Right now, every other student in her program is Chinese, Korean, or Indian and overwhelmingly male. My daughter is the top student in the program and a top finisher in the U.S. Math Olympiad. Some things I've noticed:
Parents start early with math education (e.g. flash cards, addition workbooks @ age 3)
Parents often supplement class work with drill systems (e.g. Kumon), higher level problem solving curriculums (e.g. Singapore Math), and outside tutoring programs (e.g. Kumon or math class at Sunday "Chinese school")
Parents are very savvy with how to get their kids into advanced classes (e.g. prepping kids for IQ placement testing). Being highly challenged in an advanced class further widens the gap in math between students who often start at similar abilities.
Parents expect high performance and child will sacrifice social/sport/extracurricular events in order to study.
The parents themselves are often highly educated in math disciplines (e.g. engineers) and can easily review/re-teach concepts at home.
Math is often incorporated throughout the day in real-life scenarios. E.g. A math video is played on the car ride home, a child performs real-life (non-calculator) calculations such as figuring the tip at a restaurant, etc. This builds a higher level "numbers sense" which encourages kids to perform calculations/math tricks in their head.
Games of number/strategy (e.g. Chess, Sudoku, Ken-Ken) are often played at home.
Kids often play a classical instrument starting at a very young age. There has been research linking classical musical training to high math performance. Einstein credits his violin training for his math skills - Scans of his brain showed more physical development (e.g. more brain folds) on both sides of his brain which is similar to brain scans of musicians. Einstein (like my daughter who plays cello) was ambidextrous. In her program, there seems to be a higher proportion of math students who are ambidextrous and also play a stringed instrument in the orchestra. I'm not sure if there are any studies on math performance and ambidexterity and/or whether early instrument playing results in ambidexterity and improved math performance.
There was an UK study that got alot of hate. Only if i can find the link again.
I think they compare adopted Asian kids in white family vs adopted black kids in white family. It shows that Asians grow up in white family does about the same as Asians grew up in Asian family.
Black shows improvement environments in white family. But adopted Asians still do better than adopted blacks.
There was an UK study that got alot of hate. Only if i can find the link again.
I think they compare adopted Asian kids in white family vs adopted black kids in white family. It shows that Asians grow up in white family does about the same as Asians grew up in Asian family.
Black shows improvement environments in white family. But adopted Asians still do better than adopted blacks.
I think in school, Asians tend to play with Asians and blacks tend to play with blacks.
So the cultural difference is still there.
It is mostly culture. Japan did not have mass looting after their tsunami. We always have massive looting after disasters. Some cities worse than others. Children do best when you have structured 2 parent family units & no drug or alcohol abuse. Our culture has been a very destructive environment for children. Some drastic changes have occurred to correct things a bit here, but we need to do more.
November 7, 1991, basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson stuns the world by announcing he tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Within 2 months the number of people getting tested for aids was up 50%. Illegitimate birth rates dropped within 9 months. Heroin & other injected drug use that had been soaring since 1960 slowed their accent.
The country sobered up a bit & quit sharing IV drug needles. People quit having as many orgies, as much sex with strangers & not without protection. Maybe even settled down & married. This must have reduce the financial stress of illegitimate births & drug use, thus lowered the crime rate.
There was looting in Japan, as reported in the Japanese media. Was the US media reporting it, nope! Note that many of the reports after the tsunami were not translated and simply not picked up by the western media who *want* to believe that Japan is immune to this kind of thing.
From a website of Kyodo News, Japan’s version of CNN, headlined, in Japanese:
“In Miyagi, police report 40 robberies by those taking advantage of the earthquake.”
The text, translated, reads:
“According to police on the night of the 13th the morning of the 14, approximately 1 million yen in cash was taken from the Miyagi City Home Center. There were robberies at a convenience store and a food store, and robberies at approximately 40 other stores by those taking advantage of the earthquake amounting to 1.65 million yen.”
A City Home Center is a store like a Target. And, at 80 yen to the dollar, the loss isn’t great — $12,500 in cash; $20,000 in theft. In this one report. But here was some looting, and there is no reason to think there wasn’t a lot more.
After the evacuation of Miyakejima island south of Tokyo around 2000, after a volcano, groups of thieves arrived in boats and used power shovels to remove ATMs and break into people's homes to steal valuables.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
