In the Chinese culture, they take education very seriously and the parents often put them into extracurricular educational activities and tutoring programs and push them to get straight As, whereas in American culture their thinking is there is more to life than advanced education and would rather let their children enjoy life and be able to still get passing grades instead of always needing to have a straight A or 100%. The professor gave a very good last point. Because the Chinese writing system is very complicated, it requires being deeply detail oriented, which trains their brain to pay attention to details, which is why they can learn the details of math more easily and as well as science and with academics overall.
Yep, I entered grade school with 2 years head start in math because of my parents insistence in learning the multiplication tables. This head start was leveraged into learning other STEM subjects, attaining the necessary grades to qualify for university and allowed me to skip or breeze through my first year university courses. So, yes learning basic math early gives a huge advantage in our technological world.
chinese viewer here not going to lie, i WAS good at math in china, but moved to the US at 3rd grade, and forced to learn at the same pace as the americans, now i have a constant 85 on my math class now after 5 years of interacting with everyone but my family with english, my chinese has gotten worse too, and now i don’t even have time to re-learn it
U should start using some Chinese social media to improve ur Chinese and write some Chinese characters, I have the same experience as u and I also speak Chinese with my family, and it’s never too late u know.
I came to Canada 40 years ago when I was 9, just started grade 4 in China and I was learning algebra and quadratic equations. Couldn't believe it when I got here and they're still teaching basic arithmetics. I thought it was a joke. The math foundation I learned in China tide me over to almost grade 9! I really hope they've closed the gap in the last 40 years.
Forcing 4th graders to learn math is dumb asf. They just gonna memorize the concepts like robots, instead of actually comprehending why it works like that. I could code in grade 4, but never fully understood what I was doing untill 9th grade.
They probably tried to shorten the gap but still not quite there. Vietnamese here! And my math 10 in Canada was technically everything I learned in grade 6/7 in Vietnam.
No, the gap is still there. Perhaps even greater. OK, I am from Europe, but have now spent most of my life in Canada. At age 80 I decided it was time to get my highschool diploma and enrolled in class. Having never had one minute in the Canadian School System, and never one minute of English instruction, I nevertheless ended up as class best with straight "A's" and giving the commencement speech. That should never have been possible! In my mind it didn't prove that I am super, but that the Canadian school system is sorely lacking.
i rmb as a kid when i first started learning the times tables my father forced me to memorize it by heart and i was so sick of it, however i was glad that i learned it in mandarin since i was in a chinese primary school, so now even till this day i can recite the multiplication by heart because as mentioned in the video, its easier to memorize numbers and digits in mandarin coz its simpler, and this skill totally helped me in numerous situation in life, and really glad that my dad forced me to learn it as a kid so it became a life long skill
memorizing times table is useful. yes you can do multiplication by adding number, but you wouldn't want to do that, it is slow, when you are doing more advanced math problems , you wouldn't want to spend your time and brain power on multiplication which is honestly quite trivial, you want to spend your brain power on the actually important things. it actually apply to a lot of skills, you wouldn't want to spend your brain power on the supposedly easy part, you should be able to instinctly do those easy part so you can spend your brain power on the hard part. memorizing times table is painful at first, but it doesn't take you very long time and it would be useful for your whole life.
I’m Chinese and I used to enjoy memorizing the times tables from 1-9. Got them all down by 5yrs old. Every time there’s a car ride with my family it’s a times table competition between me and my older sister. Good times HAHAHA Prof Leung was also right in saying it’s a whole lot easier to memorize the times table in Chinese compared to English. Every time someone asks me a math question in English I have to process it in Chinese in my head to get the answer quicker. Maybe it’s just me 🤷🏻♀️
May i ask you a question. Im east european living in Australia. I am in high school . WHy do chinese always read from pieces of paper. At my school we learn with devices
@@aaaquascaping9774Because paper is the easiest thing to remember, and one more thing, it must be used, that is, writing characters, Chinese characters must be used to practice well, in addition, it is easier to develop intelligence by using paper.
I used to fail all of my math tests back in Hong Kong, and getting like 20% in my exams. Then I went to a UK school, and I'm top set and one of the best in the class (UK has sets for different ability levels).
At 1:25. The question is written wrong. It should say "Which two numbers have a sum of 15 and ARE FACTORS of 36?" 12 and 3 are not products of 36. They're factors since you multiply them to get the product of 36. Tisk, tisk...
However 6 and 9 are factors of 36 (36÷6 = 6 and 36÷9=4) and add up to fifteen and so would 12 and 3 so there would be multiple answers so factors of a number don't necessarily multiply to get that number that's why factor pairs are a thing. You can also use vieta's formula to get the answer. p+q=-b÷a pq=c÷a The quadratic equation is in the form ax^2+bx+c If we assume a is 1 then -b=15 b=-15 and c is 36 so the equation is x^2-15x+36=0 x=15+-sqrt(225-144))/2 x=15+-9/2 x=(15+9)/2 = 24/2 = 12 x=(15-9)/2 = 6/2 = 3 x = (12,3) Therefore the numbers which add to get 15 and multiply to get 36 are 12 and 3.
I'm a Chinese going to school in Germany. When I was younger in China in primary school, I always hid my math homework in order to skip them... And now in Germany I have a good mark. Sometimes I ask myself, do I get a good grade because I'm a Chinese or am I really good in math.
My mother tongue is Cantonese and I'm completely fluent in English, but when I need to count something quickly and do mental math, my brain naturally switches to Cantonese because it's much quicker.
I'm from Singspore in a school that's mainly chinese or SAP schools, and all the maths is taught in a mix of English and Chinese, no joke. And honestly I didn't even grow up in a Chinese speaking home and it's easier to catch.
I had a (almost retiring) math teacher who taught math in broken English, also in SAP school. But he was very good at his job, never had a problem with math in lower secondary at all. Later during a more casual relief class, as a relief teacher, he excused himself and spoke perfect Chinese to us, which surprised everyone because we were so used to his sing-song broken English, haha. Probably one of the last of the Chinese-educated local teachers.
@@sarefin those Chinese teacher ah, I didn't got. I'm quite young the teachers who taught me would have been those who didn't even study in the Chinese Education system given they all were probably born in the early 1970s, and so what? You see the maths scores of them vs the avg school.
The language is also more math friendly. Just learning 1 to 10, you can count to 99. Counting to 999 just require learning 1 extra word. Imagine my disbelief in learning how to count in French. 91 = 4x20 +11 😵
Woah 3:30, my class actually participated in that. We were literally doing maths and science exercises repeatedly in that year. The whole class got to bond with each other more with the rapid discussions. One of the best memories ever!
I could understand the idea of talent vs hard work. Some people don’t like a challenge. If it doesn’t come easy to them, they just don’t do it. Or find a way around it. Other people are motivated by challenge. When they are not good at something, they try harder, do whatever it takes to master it
I've always felt that getting A's in math up to high schools level is just basic due diligence and a good learning environment. You don't need talent to excel at basic math, just the right teachers and the right learning environment. Basic math is unchanging. I'm pregnant now and I've been planning to teach my kid math early just so they have enough of a foundation for it to not worry about it so much in the future. I'd rather they grasp the basics early on and then enjoy the rest of their childhood exploring sciences, arts or sports to see what they really have the talent for or what they're really interested in. I'd probably also send them for music and dance lessons just for them to have a chance of exposure to them.
It’s just practice and memorising. I just find it fun and sometimes my class asks my math teacher for extra math homework but she stills does not give it to us
@@omnomnom5359 dude no it was the first week of school and we didn’t have homework for 3 days and nobody wanted to keep doing revision at home we much rather do homework
I’m really surprised the abacus was not mentioned here. My family ran a restaurant and I’ll never forget seeing my grandpa’s brother working on the finances with his abacus. Watching him work was mesmerizing
I am 90 and grew up in Germany. I still learned to use the Abacus and later the slide rule and did all my drawing on the drawing board, and there was no computer and associated printers. A different world!!
it's a misconception that all Chinese are good at math. they just good at calculating because using mandarin makes it easier to memorize multiplication table in rhyme.
I see it differently. Chinese in general are as good in math as any ethnic groups. Chinese may seem to be exceptional in math because the Chinese you meet in the US are talented people that were sent to the US to study, leaving less math proficient Chinese back at home.
It’s not true, they do share some similarities, but not all the same like u said If you’re interested and respect these people u mentioned, u wouldn’t make this ignorant comment
Singapore is a diverse country with a predominant Chinese community but there are Malays, Indians and other ethnic minorities. Koreans live in Korea. Japanese people live in Japan. Hong Kong and Taiwan obviously have predominantly large Chinese communities. Please respect everyone and not say things like everyone is Chinese. We are all global citizens but we are not all the same people.
@@crusador84 Thanks. I live in Singapore and I constantly have to contend with chauvinists like this from time to time who think their race is superior to others. My mom is fair skinned and looks Chinese but my dad is dark skinned. I am Malay. Most ppl assume I am good at Math bcos my mom is Chinese and when I told them she wasn't and that my dad is good at Math, they just shut up. Cos they cannot accept that a Malay can be good at Math and that if he were good at it it must be bcos of some Chinese blood.
chinese are not better in math but better in calculating. There is a important difference. I think language plays a major role. counting in chinese and other easten Asia language is much simpler and faster than in all other language I know. Hence calculating is simpler for them. Good basic education also plays a role of course.
I would say that is ridiculous. I mean, I am Chinese and it's just that I am hardworking and I practice. Americans are kind of lazy and don't really focus on what they want to do.
no math has much more complexity than a language, with rules built on rules built on more rules and as it goes it gets more and more complexity. Language caps at a certain complexity.
@@ericgan7742 I did not say that math and languages are the same but instead , contrary to what many seem to believe, when learning either of them much more important to innate ability is the amount of work you put in.
@@jholotanbest2688 with practice, math ability can only go to a certain limit, but for language it is different. With language one can master everything about a language. For context, I do comp math :).
@@ericgan7742 It is like you are responding to someone else's comments. And those reponses make very little sense in themselves. I have never heard that anyone has mastered a language. What dose that even mean? Knowing all the words and grammar or writing the best poems ever?
I slayed the entire 6th grade math class when I first moved here, but in high school there are different levels you can choose and math wasn’t my thing and I’m glad I have the option to stop pursuing it further after precalculus
The funny thing is, I am Chinese and I am very similar to the stereotypes. Like I love books, top of the class in math and science, and usually am in the corner studying
I'm a Chinese but I was very poor in math.Remember back in school time..25 questions and I only got one correct.. My math subject teacher scolded me saying "you know.. the most stupid student in this class can still get 2 correct answer, what is matter with you?"..
In every Chinese school, the three compulsory major subjects are Chinese, English and Math. And there's another saying goes 'If you master mathematics, physics and chemistry, the world is yours to explore.' Unfortunately I don't do good with numbers no matter how hard my parents pushed me. My school life was kinda suck because of this. I kept away from these courses as far as I can ever since I graduated from high school. Now I'm almost 30 and work in art field. I still get weary from dealing with maths. Guess Maths PTSD is a thing.
oh come on, 360/4 is nothing but 36/4 and add a zero in the end. It is an instant answer. If you want to good at mental math, you have to do it frequently. It does not necessarily mean to sit down and do math problems w/o calculator. You can, for example, do it when you visiting the grocery store by adding up the price of all products you buy before checking out. From the process, you should aim to spot patterns, not memorizing results, and, perhaps finding shortcuts (like 99+99=198=200-2).
To further emphasize the cultural difference here, I'm American and when I told my parents I was going to study Engineering instead of Art, they said, "Why? You're so good at Art. You're a natural." Of course not all American families are like this, but I do notice the obsession with focusing on what you're good at instead of working hard to acquire a new skill that is different from the box people have put you in.
I didn’t fuck up my brain lol. When I was a kid, I was busy. I had school from 07.00 until 16.00. Once I arrived at home, I cleaned up myself and rest at home. Then, I took extra courses outside school (in English, music, foreign languages, dance) until 20.00. If I don’t have any extra courses (once in a week), I just spent my time playing with my friends, maybe working on group works, or watch TV. I’m quite lazy so even if I’m free, I will procrastinate working on my own homework until 20.00 lol. I usually started to do my homework and studying for next day’s lesson at 20.00. Depending on the difficulty of the work, I can stay up until 00.00 or 01.00. Of course, it takes a long time mainly because I got distracted reading Harry Potter, lol. If the homework is easy, half an hour or an hour will be enough. If I have an exam though, I usually mysteriously already feeling sleepy at 22.00. So I slept and wake up again at between 02.00 or 03.00 to start studying until morning. Despite the hectic schedule during my younger days, not once did I ever feel tired. Maybe it’s just the kids body.
I remembered learning the multiplication table by first grade in HongKong. When arriving in America the teacher wants students to write out the multiplication table. They don't understand I know the table by heart and can use it. This is in fourth grade! You wondered why the educational system is so backwards here!
The main reason they are better including Europe and some other countries is because the curriculum is way better. The teachers care for there students and like there jobs. Here in America teachers just read from a book and give tests and wait for there check. The parents also give 2 shits.
I mean Chinese people just have a much more rigorous curriculum and work ethic. Of course this means that on average Chinese students can do much better in math compared to American students (usually AP by grade 10). The perceived "aptitude" comes from the extra effort put into math, not a freebie just by being "Chinese".
Good video. Plus, Chinese is difficult for Chinese, too, at least for me. I often forget how to write each character when I am in primary school, and it it called "simplified Chinese"😂😂😂
5:20 Lol I just want to mention that the US, UK, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and many other countries’ teams are all majority ethnically Chinese
The inaugural batch of IAL students from my secondary school (in HK), including myself, have scored incredibly well in maths. One paper had five students out of 9 scoring 70 and above (full mark is 75), and I was one of them with a 73. In 2019 we also did quite well in IGCSE, as tons of people scored way above the cut off score for a grade 9 (159/200).
It’s linguistic. Math is much easier to work with in chinese. There’s no eleven, twelve, or twenty. It’s ten one, ten two, and two ten. Math is much more intuitive in Chinese than in English
Can't agree more. Chinese being a tonal comes with an advantage that almost all words have single syllable. Compare liu with six and qi with seven, it's just so easy for Chinese to do the math in mind. It will be tedious for English speaker to memorize the 9x9 times table. Imagine reciting six times six is thirty-six.
@@gadzadhamgaacaan8488 I don't see your point. How is it easier to say liu or qi instead of six of seven? And what would six times six is thirty-six be in chinese?
@@wedsv Liu and Qi are single syllable. Imagine instead of six you say si and instead of seven you say se. This is basically how easy it is to count in Chinese. But you can't do this in English because you would end up with so many words sounding the same due to the lack of tones, so to compensate English has to make the words longer to have more variety of sounds. Six times six is thirty-six in Chinese will be "liu liu san shi liu", five syllables. Children memorizing the table by repeatedly reciting it, so easy pronunciation means easy memorization. Being able to do the simple calculation intuitively is the key for better math.
NGL, as a chinese student growing up in China. Most of the question, I don't even need to write it down. Can do it in my head. And btw, in middle school, high school, i was never allowed to use calculator to.
What showed in this video are not MATH, they are just calculations. Many Chinese are good at calculations, not Math. Calculations can be trained with exercises, but Math is about understanding.
I don't think so. But while i bad at math, my parents laugh at me that i failed at math as a chinese, then i try my best to score the best mark in math. I think what make me good in math is culture.
This is primary school maths that 10 years old kids do in Singapore. Regardless of race they are train to think in the minds, no writing on the paper. I know because my wife is a maths teacher. Inevitably, they got it right.
Math and science. I went to school in HK it was tough but when my family immigrated to San Francisco. I started at 5th grade. Basic math. I was learning basic math in 1st grade. Geometry by third grade in HK.
Growing up in North Vancouver some schools here is 40-70% Chinese, Korean, Japanese or Filipino depending on the city and community. I remember growing up Most Chinese parents Chinese kids always were in some tutoring or educational program versus sports or Arts. My kids in school now while they go for play based learning, sports and Art related skill most the Asian immigrants spend more time preparing for Academic study. Both my kids are half Chinese and one has ADHD, Language difficulty the other has low muscle tone. It was hard at first for my family to accept since in Asian culture you are either smart or not. I think Chinese brain is wired differently and it’s also depends on the genetics. North Americans date people not on what genes they’ll pass on to the kids. As for Dating in China couples look for education or being a high achiever as being a good thing to pass on to children since most are expected to have children for the in laws.
🇨🇳 🇨🇳 🇨🇳 Top Math Performance 🇷🇺 🇷🇺 🇷🇺 Genius Mathematicians 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 🇮🇳 Software Gods Europes : Generally birth place of most chemistry and physics formulas.
Born Chinese, and I have never done Kumon in my life. I am very good at algebra, and I would say that I grasp many math concepts very quickly. However, I hate geometry with a passion, if only that proofs suck. Like, suck so much. Transitive property blah-blah? Get rid of that. Edit: Also, I am adopted and my adoptive parents are white Americans. Food for thought: neither are particularly good at math, and think of that what you will.
I would say that I agree will you. I love math that has numbers and I was never interested in geometry and measurement, but I was still good at it. I would say that the Asian stereotypes are partly true, but we shouldn't be viewed that way.
I am more curious about whether or not bilingualism in chinese and english produces better educational outcomes for students in more than just maths and why.. a very difficult question to answer because obviously it would be difficult to separate cause and effect.
I can’t say I’m good at math because I only know algebra and some geometry, no calculus, and terribly on word math. And I’m rusty. I don’t see why some people treats math as if it is a hardest subject. You just need see the patterns. Ever heard of the “Fibbonacci Series?” I never learned it in school and college; only recently. Anyway, it sound like some fancy name for a math equation but when you look at it, you’ll see the pattern. 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21... I’m not sure it’s related, some say people with autism are good with math. I’m probably among them.
Good in mathematics is a prerequisite tools for Physics. By then, physicians can verify the bank charge to have interest on loan is breaching the Physics Principle Conservation of Mass and Energy. In other words, the Interest is virtual money created by calculation, not by labour work. This is the root of all evils affecting everyone on Earth. Interest on Money Claims Act 2016 set by New Zealand Parliament was wrongfully assent by the Government General, The Queen in Right of NZ.
Chinese and Indian people might be good at Mathematics, but in the last 30 years all great innovation and inventions have come out of USA,hence that is the most intelligent society
Cus it's highschool? Take ap or IB, since those courses are for people who are actually serious. If you get 90% in math, your not good, your just average. Ask if you can take ap or ib
I love looking at them when I was younger Unfortunately bad teachers(lacking teaching experience) came into play and I progressively lost myself and my interest in learning them
that chinese is the original version not the simplified one the simplified version doesn't have the meaning whereas the original or complicated version each word has it's meaning and why it's written this way
