The book “Outliers” by The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell features many inspiring stories of success that span the world’s many cultures. Gladwell tells stories of how some people make it, while others fall deep in the cracks; all the while, feeding the reader many interesting facts about what makes certain cultures excel in certain fields.
One story in particular is quite an attention-grabber. Why are Asians so much better at math than other cultures? Are they born with this innate ability? Is it something they inherit? Does it have to do with where they are raised? Or maybe they just happen to work harder than others.
In the book, Gladwell wrote, “In English, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, so one would think that we would also say one-teen, two-teen, and three- teen. But we don’t. We make up a different form: eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fifteen.”
On the other hand, countries such as China, Japan and the Koreas have a simpler way with numbers. “The number system in English is highly irregular,” Gladwell said. “Not so in China, Japan and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten one. Twelve is ten two. Twenty-four is two ten four, and so on.”
This simple difference makes Chinese, Japanese and Korean numbers easier to memorize, as well as being faster to pronounce.
For example, in Chinese, the number eight is just “ba,” and the number four is just “si.” The numbers are a lot easier to say and much easier to store in the brain.
With such an advantage in being able to hold more numbers, Chinese children learn to count to 40 by age of four, while the American child can only count to 15. In other words, by the age of four, Chinese children are already a year ahead.
Gladwell also mentioned, “[Asians] can hold more numbers in their head, and do calculations faster, and the way fractions are expressed in their language corresponds exactly to the way a fraction actually is—and maybe that makes them a little more likely to enjoy math, and maybe because they enjoy math a little more they try a little harder and take more math classes and are more willing to do their homework, and on and on, in a kind of virtuous circle.”
In the long run, since Asians are willing to work harder and take more math classes and do their homework, they are destined to get better with time. The better they get, the more they want to keep going, work harder, take more classes and even do more homework. In the end, the more and more practice they put in, the better they get.
Gladwell finishes this astonishing story with this: “When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have [a] built-in advantage…”
