Why do Asian kids outperform Western kids in math? | by Malcolm Gladwell 

Students who believe that success depends on innate ability do poorly compared to those who believe that success depends on effort.

Now. As a 65 yo black male, retired. I remember in high school I put in as much effort in Math. Science and music. As my friends put in on the Bball court. As friends would tease me and say you can't dunk. I used to say. I can solve and graph any function. So at 61, sold my Interest in an engineering firm and now I'm designing guitar pickups. My race, nah. My effort yah!

grades according to Asian parents: A - average B - below average C - can't get dinner D - don't come home F - find a new family

I went to school in Indonesia until grade 4. When I went to a western-style international school in grade 5, I was suddenly considered a "gifted" math student and was always placed in the honors class until grade 12. Maybe it is the overall cultural attitude, but that also impacts the education system. Schools in many Asian countries just go through math curriculum faster, from grade 1. What is considered an "honors class" in the US is just the regular curriculum in many Asian countries. And yes, Indonesia is a rice-growing country. But I think our culture is a lot less workaholic than East Asian countries like Korea, Japan, and China.

Fun video but the historical link to rice farming is only a small factor in performance differences. My son was one of very few non asians in his public HS class - the common characteristics of these families: 1) at least one parent was attached to their child and supervised STEM homework actively from grade 6 onward; 2) the families did not buy into currently trendy intersectional ideas of disadvantage; 3) the families instilled a work ethic almost to a fault because immigrant parents sacrifice so much get to NA and to put their kids in a position to succeed

I taught for over 30 years at a high school and then at a college. By far the best predictor of success in all areas of life is the students peer group. Nobody in the high achieving peer group wants to be the low scoring student. Nobody in the low acheiving peer group cares how they scored, so long as they pass. In certain female peer groups consider not using protection or birth control and getting pregnant to be stupid, while in other female peer groups becoming a single mother is almost a rite of passage. Family and teachers certainly can be an influence, but the standards of the peer group has by far the most profound effect.

The parental example of having a strong work ethic and parental involvement in their kids’ education is another factor.

I sincerely felt that "i didn't have what it takes" when taking math (calc) but i didn't apply myself. I gave up before I even tried.

I am an East Asian. Singaporean. I sucked at Math so Bad that you wouldn't believe. But as I grew older , I am much better at " Math " because I somehow got myself into the remittance industry and FX and exchange rates is a very important factor in my industry. And I am making a fair bit of money. I forced myself to be good at math because the income is just too sweet.

I’m from the Philippines, I’m not that good in Math, hence I have a major in Science, but my niece passed her 4 semesters of calculus, and I’m so proud of her, she’s taking BS chemistry and hopefully she can graduate! You are so right it’s the attitude and the effort she puts into it.❤

When I was in high school, I had a math teacher who gave us 100 problems a night for homework, and we reviewed them the next day. I was really good at math that year.

I think it is that most Asian parents give a lot more importance in education for their children and push them to succeed academically that makes a lot of difference.

- BECAUSE ASIANS ARE AWESOME !!!

If Asian kids towards math is hard work instead of ability and according to this video, is the right attitude, by corollary, those who do very poorly at math has the wrong attitude. Can we likewise say that Asian income in the United States relative to other minorities is reflective of attitude as well. With Asian income substantially higher than any other race in the U.S. including whites, can we say then that racial differences in income is more reflective of attitude than the impact of discrimination?

Ok so... I am an Asian and I am an immigrant in America, now an American who is raising American born kids and yes 🤣when I see their maths.... I always hated maths but here's it's easy as hell.... I make fun of my girl 🤣which I shouldn't but I tell her learn the tricks we used to do in 90 s in Asia

You might also want to consider that from elementary school, the Asian kids spend hours every day diligently doing their homework. They also take extra lessons at cram schools in the evenings, after dinner. Yes, this is greater effort, but it applies to other studies too besides math. They also tend to study in a way that helps them pass tests. This involves hours and years of studying the tests and practice in taking them. Math is a systematic intellectual subject, and studying it successfully is also a disciplined and systematic exercise.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. Places like Kumon really help. Practicing over, and over again until its engrained in your head.

Effort vs Ability. Achievement vs. Self-Esteem. Value to others vs. Self-Worth. What you do vs. Who you are.

Its because their parents are stricter and they encourage their children to do well...🙂🇬🇧

I came here as a refugee from Vietnam and almost every friend I had in high school was a refugee from Asia. What I noticed is that the friends that sucked at reading comprehension and writing tend to work hard at math. The ones that sucked at everything went for sociology, communications or liberal arts degrees. I was in the same honors math courses, and except for my best friend (who was exceptionally gifted, so an outlier) no Asian I knew was exceptionally bright at math (i.e., they needed to do the homework--often spending a lot more time than prudent).

I have a genetic condition called NF1. Part of what it does to me is give me a visual spacial disability. When I got to college and was struggling with math, I went to a dorm mate from Taiwan for help. She would show me how to work a particular type of problem, then have me work one problem at a time. She would check it. If it were correct, we would move on. If it was incorrect, she would tell me so, but not tell me where my mistake was, just erase it and tell me to do it again. I finally found success in my, but please don’t ask me to read a map.

What I have noticed is that, Asian schools tend to be very competitive when it comes to academics. Even the students have a mindset of competitiveness so that even their slightest mistake in solving math problems make them think of themselves as failure or dishonor to their clan (Of course, not all Asian students are this way, but many are.). That is because whoever would score the lowest in a math test inside the classroom, that poor student would be left behind, and that is a shame. However I have noticed in the West that many young people (Again, I'm not saying all though) have a mindset of "who needs these math formulas in real life anyway?" so that they easily become frustrated and will no longer like to sit through the math problem they ought to solve. Just an observation though, I might be having a wrong conclusion.

There is a bizzare situation in schools where those who do well in Maths and science get labelled as "geeks" , are looked down , social outcasts ....hence much lesser effort to be in that category...btw India is also in Asia , not sure why no data was shared around India

Why all the spelling mistakes in a presentation about academic achievement?

It's heartening to know that successful cultural traits can be emulated.

Also it is cultural to work harder, and study harder. When your culture puts the greatest emphasis on education, they will do better overall. Americans will fall even further behind because of "Critical race theory" Teaching kids that men can have babies instead of math, and "wokeness " is not helping

Most parents push their kids especially in todays environment yet certain people always rise to the top. It's not just cultural. Also how does a people come up with its culture? Why asians/jews advocate for being a doctor/lawyer/teacher, but other groups advocated for being rappers,dancers,athletes?

You know… his take on this seems very plausible to me; and what I especially like about it is that it places the responsibility for performance exactly where it aught to be: the student. It’s a matter of attitude and effort: work ethic.

Report from International Mathematics Olympiad 2022: - All 6 Chinese competitors solved ALL tasks. - All 6 American competitors were of Chinese origin - 5 of 6 Australian competitors were of Chinese origin. Only 1 Caucasian.

Considering the situation in Germany, I can see that basic training has been massively neglected for several decades. Why learn the multiplication tables when you can get straight into set theory? The result was that entire generations of these pupils did not master neither the multiplication tables nor set theory, let alone acquire other mathematical skills. In some states, math curricula are determined by social workers who aim to ensure that no one feels humiliated or excluded if they don't understand higher-level concepts. The breakdown then occurs at universities.

Here was how I went to school growing up: woke up at 6am, made breakfast, biked 45min to school. School started at 7am, studied till 12pm, 1h lunch break, continued to study until 5pm. 1h dinner, biked 1h to tutor, studied until 9pm, biked home, finished homework of the day, showered, went to bed. Weekends were dedicated to tutors and extra-curriculum (e.g: more tutors.😂) We studied 5-7 subjects a day, almost the same schedule everyday, and all homework must be submitted before classes start the next day, everyday. That’s how I got into a university in a country that I don’t even speak much of it’s language 😅

It's our society changing. Our decline as a great nation in so very many respects. Our entire population is being softened and our childrens' mind set is being softened.

Many Asian people I know usually grow up with 2 parents in the household.

It's quite simple: we are disciplined. Euro countries are better than America too. Estonia is a high ranking math country that can even compete with Asian countries. American parents have totally failed on many fronts, especially math. They're way too soft.

Asian cultural traditions value hard work and discipline which are both extremely beneficial when learning mathematics. Math no mater what level is really very simple, which the following. Follow the rules the same way every time and the answer produced will be the same every time.

But there is an innate difference between the different races and their corresponding language group. Far Eastern languages are more symbolic while Western languages are more purely linguistic so that when a student from China reads, they involve more of the right brain in processing the symbols in their language while Western languages are typically processed exclusively in the left hemisphere of the person's brain. Then when it comes to doing math or symbolic logic, the Eastern student's brain is engaged in a similar way doing the math or logic problem as when they are reading a verbal question. The two are not so different and so the manipulation of symbols is more frequently practiced in Far Eastern languages giving them more practice at doing what is required in math or logic than Western students. The lack of practice detracts from the Western students' chance of developing the skill at manipulating symbols that are structured non-linguistically.

PRACTICE. When I was in high school, at some point I was very bad with trigonometry. After a failed test, I went back home and did hundreds of exercises untill I could see the result even before starting the carlculations. So, mathematcs takes practice and effort. It is just like playing the piano. Nobody can become a virtuoso without practicing daily.

I am an Asian American. I have never lived, nor ever went to school in Asia. So I can't compare Eastern and Western countries and their attitude to math. I will say that I was one of the best math students in my class. I studied up to PreCalculus and mostly got As. Scored 600 out of 800 on the SATs in math. It was a subject that I found fun and I did well at effortlessly. It wasn't so effortless for my White classmates. Math wasn't even my best subject. I preferred English, and majored in English literature in college. I definitely had the mindset that all math problems put before me were solvable. As long as the level wasn't greater than precalc. And I guess most Americans don't have that mindset.

Math is about reps done daily built on a solid foundation of the basics. Also most humans can’t see it unless it’s explained. Most math is about discipline pre calculus. It’s basic foundational stuff.

This attitude to work hard is taught. It's in the culture!

because they do not fall into the victim mythology and have an outstanding work ethic.

I think it's all driven by what a country values. Countries like the US want to push kids to have extracurricular interests like sports, music, art, drama, etc. This is great if you want more well-rounded kids but not so wonderful if you want them to perform highly in math. This diversity of interest is less prized in Asian culture, and therefore, they can put more emphasis on math. If a country's economic growth is driven by graduates with STEM degrees, then that's where it's going to put its emphasis. The US has always had the allure to import that talent from other countries so there is not a strong desire to produce their own. Moreover, in recent years the emphasis on STEM education decreased even more since the US education system, overly worried about kid's feeling bad if they are behind, are doing things like "dumbing" down math and science, getting rid of homework, or getting rid of algebra in 8th grade. What it boils down to is expectations. I think the reason US kids aren't doing so good in math is simply because the nation doesn't expect them to be.

Vietnamese like me believe efforts and consistency beats talent in the long run.

Gladwell points to the "Labor Intensive" part of rice growing as the explanation for why these cultures are predisposed to hard work, but then ignores the other aspect of rice growing that he initially mentions - that it is Cognitively Complex. For centuries, illiterate rice farmers have had to carve out perfectly level paddies from sloped terrain, divert and control water flow to and from each paddy, all while timing plantings and harvests for optimum yield in multiple paddies that need to be flooded or drained under the farmer's careful control. Yes, the physical labor is intensive, but these rice farmers also cultivated a high level of brain power that must also be recognized.

The attitude is taught by the parents. I do the same with my kids, i tell them : "Work hard, or you will end up washing the dishes in a restaurant."

I just retired after 26 years in American education and also spent time in schools in Taiwan, China, and Japan. Their is a cultural difference. In East Asia you compete after elementary school to get into the best schools in the city. You do not just go to the school nearest you. It is a merit based system. Parents push their kids hard to study and behave because they are your retirement program when you get old. Kids that do not work hard or behave well are soon tracked to a vocational school to learn a trade. You compete to get into the best national universities. The Asian countries do not have the time or money to waste on those who do not try hard and show ability. Yet, they do not cast you aside instead you are given a good vocational skill to provide a good living wage. I have seen Asians here in the USA who have become Americanized and do not do as well as those who are first or second generation immigrants. The Americanized Asians have lost their cultural roots and adopted the worst of our habits. We must have an Asian style system here in the USA or we are finished in academics. MA East Asian Studies Chinese, Fulbright Scholar Japan 2003, and Fulbright Scholar China 2005.

Excellent animation. Congrats!

A wise man once said: "welcome to the rice fields motherf****r!"

I am Indonesian which is South East Asia btw. Yes, our grandparents woke up at 4am and went to rice field at 5am since sun rise around 5am then work until 12 noon. Stop from 12 to 2pm because sun is to hot, they usually have lunch and a nap. Woke up at 2pm and work until 6pm since the sun set at 6pm and to dark to work after 6pm. Me and my parents are not farmer but we do wake up at 4am since we need to do pray at 4.30am (we are muslim) and go for school or work at 6am (School in Indonesia start at 6.30am and finish at 4pm). The office worker finish their work at 5pm or 6pm than go home to rest and ready for 4am routine 😊

I mean, as a teaching tool, Gladwell makes sense. As to actually why... If you're a Chinese or Japanese kid, which is easier: Math, or memorizing 10,000 individual characters so you can read? In the West, poetry is easier than calculus for many people. In much of Asia, someone has to memorize thousands of characters before they can even begin to write basic poetry, while math is something they can start on in a day. Math is an easier language to read than Chinese or Japanese, so it gets more attention.

We are not smarter than you guys, we just spent more time studying. I mean 10 hours a day, 5 days a week in school for about 15 years.

If we were animals, the east would be dogs and the west would be cats.

I taught in (Japan, Indonesia, Spain, USA). USA: schools like San Diego High, and GREAT schools like UCBerkeley. Too many American kids are too worried about how they look to their friends. The BAD students. And includes such as math teachers. And seeing how far you can . Result? Bad American students REFUSE to cooperate in their math class, some of them even intentionally disrupt so nobody else can learn either. Meanwhile, in Indonesia and Japan that problem doesnt exist. => It's a question of effort.. => American kids KNOW they are gonna get a High School Diploma EVEN IF they are INNUMERATE. So why make any effort doing something (math) you dont wanna do? It's not about (IQ, poverty, money). It's ATTITUDE. => of course there are plenty of GOOD students in USA too, who have GOOD attitudes. and majority of students somewhere in between trying to make as little effort as possible. => most American kids could learn the WHOLE High School Math Curriculum in under 6 months if they WANTED to. But they dont WANT to. Same curriculum that is SUPPOSED to take 3/4 years, and MAJORITY never learn ANYWAY, but STILL graduate High School. => In USA it's not hard to graduate from COLLEGE (in Liberal Arts) while STILL innumerate!

Intellectual endurance. The ability to study and retain information is something that is built over time. It is developed and ingrained in Asian children, but not as much on the Western side. It's not all about effort at that particular time because the data has to be retained. If you've never studied 60 hours in a week, the first time you do it you will retain very little information. But if you've been doing it for years, then you retain much more data.

Here's a thought...they study more. People that work hard at something tend to succeed more often.

While some of what you say may be right, let me mention a couple of reasons why a north European farmer worked shorter hours - 1000 vs 3000 hours per year. (1) The growing season was shorter; (2) Daylight hours is shorter.

I'm Asian, and I think it's the culture, Asians are in close knit community and kids are peer compared and judged based on academic performance. This is both good and bad, as many kids try hard and excel, but others don't and must suffer the shame as "failure" this kind of ultra competitive society is unhealthy.

no. the real answer is. in every asian school. every student must go to the board and solve the problem. if you don't answer it correctly you will get embarrassed especially if your crush is watching you. so the next time you go back to the board, you want to be better.

Difficult part of highschool math is memorizing math formulas & equations & open notes is not allowed because it's considered as cheat sheet

I would argue that the rice theory doesn't fully hold water, as America was a very hard working country prior to the 60s. There is a culture of jack-of-all trades and self sufficiency, which requires a lot of hard work lest you die. Quite a few things destroyed this work ethic: the counterculture which was very lazy and hedonistic, globalization which took away a lot of jobs, welfare and incentivizing to not work, feminist and race politics which eventually became discriminatory to those not in their groups. You correctly identified that American culture is severely lacking for handling math and tackling problems. That is because America turned its back on what works. You will find that even within US, the math scores have inverted from liberal coastal cities and midwest, from 90s till now. The liberal coastal cities used to dominate, now it's reversed. Ask yourself why. It's because of the coddling and all of the above reasons.

you nailed it..

I am asian, and here's the thing, for 3 years when I was in middle school, I sucked at just bout anything, maths being one of them. The best I could ever do was barely passing, and that was because I was lazy. Until high school I decided go all out, I did, I solved at least 10 math questions everyday. By the time the semester ends I already did all the questions in the books. The results? I went from a D- student to a B+. It's not genes, it's effort. Maths is about logic and reasoning, how the brain see a pattern, and this is not an innate skills, it needs to be trained. The brain needs to be trained.

The whole point is validated by the fact that when you get to maths research. Professional mathematicians, i.e. the people who never gave up on effort, are not over represented by one ethnic background. Where ever you are, you find hardworking mathematicians.

One issue behind the lower scores in the US is the difference in emphasis. Primary school students in the US spend a lot of time learning to manipulate fractions eg. Divide five and three fourths by two and two thirds. Or adding fractions with mixed denominators. (also issues with constantly changing educational fads: common core curriculum, etc.) The metric-based world bypasses these fraction skills which hardly appear in the TIMSS tests. The US test results would improve if we matched the international math curriculum more closely.

Particularly for East Asia, it may also be because their languages are more intuitive which makes learning maths and other sciences easier.At least in Chinese and Japanese, the way they say the numbers and express mathematical operations is faster than in European languages.Of course cultural aspects are important too, and there is a lot to it, not just rice farming but as a lazy white guy I won't write a longer comment explaining all those cultural differences.

I'm chinese filipino and went to a chinese school until grade 6. The way we study math is entirely different, I only realized when I transferred to a more western school for highschool/college (what would be grade 7 in the west), the chinese number system is amazing because it RHYMES, I swear we spent days memorizing multiplication tables but it became easy because the numbers would rhyme. To this day, people think I can do math in my head really fast but it just IS FAST because I use math in CHINESE. I have already forgotten everything I learned from the chinese school about the language except a few words, but the math really stuck with me and I use it to this day. I am not even one of the better students, in an asian school I would be way below average. But Heck, I kid you not, that in grades 3 or so we were already studying areas of triangles and circles, when I got back to that same subject in the more western college I almost laughed because this stuff was what we struggled over when we were tiny kids in my chinese school. I still hate math tho, cosigns and trig can go to hell! I ended up a lawyer.

I don't believe it is because they are Asian. It is because they have a culture that stresses hard work in school. My father made me learn the multiplication tables in the third grade. Later as a result I scored in the 93 percentile in math on the ACT. Have a graduate engineering degree and passed the CPA exam.

Great points on Attitude. No arguing there. But some context is needed on these "math scores"... Eastern cultures value memorization and conformance. They may do "well" on "Math tests" but when it comes to applied mathematics, innovation, and problem solving where it can't be memorized -- they do horrible. China took 5 years of their top engineers to finally engineer the ball point pen.... in 2017.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I always believed that results are the product of effort, I'm not Asian. I'm good at math. I don't believe the farming idea. It's the modern idea that kids should feel good, and not work hard. Now only those with interest can do good, mistakes for innate ability.

holidays for medieval European farmers - have you lost your mind ???

Einstein: I thought exactly the opposite of what you said a hundred years ago

Not related to genes you say? How do children of Asian decent born in the west to parents, grandparents and great grandparents born in the West?

Well, it is not attitude. It is what pressure you have if you don't keep up with the grade. I have experience with both systems. I studied primary and high school in Asia, and one year of high school in Canada and all the way to PhD in computer science in Canada. It is not the attitude. I did not study hard in Asia, especially in math. But no matter what, they would keep feeding you the materials for years. You just got used to the materials. In Canada, it is different. They don't force you to do math. And you progress according to your own speed. So, in general, high school kids here don't do well in math. Also, the syllabus is very different. Here, until Grade 10, perhaps even Grade 11, school is more like daycare than anything else. I was very lucky in Asia because our math teacher was passionate about math. So she taught us way more materials than the common exam required (GCE O Level). Otherwise, I was fed what would be in the exams. In some school, ONLY exam materials would be taught. So, yeah, if you test them on those materials, they would do very well. Then, why is it that there are still many math professors educated in North America, if it is so bad? Well, once you are in third year university, suddenly, the advantage you get in high school is not longer there. At that point, you need aptitude in math to do well. Students majoring in math in university are students who actually like math. They are not forced to take math as their major. They want to take math as their major. And people who only know how to do math, without knowing why they do math will fall behind. And wherever you are educated, if you have the aptitude, and you are passionate about math, you will do well majoring in math. Now, I am not saying which system is better. Both are bad, and both are good. It depends which one is good for you. The Canadian system is much better for me because I don't like to study textbooks. I like to explore on my own. If I had stayed in Asia, I would not have gotten into a graduate school, let alone getting a PhD. But here, because I already had research ability when I was in undergraduate, graduate school was a breeze for me. So, no, it is not attitude. At least not for me.

Totally wrong perspectives. As a Chinese person who went through the tough Chinese College Entrance Exam, math score only weighs 20% percent of the exam while English and Chinese weighs 40%. Math was never the most important thing in our education system or our traditional culture. Traditional Chinese culture value literature and philosophy way more than math. For example, we like name babies with wen(literature in Chinese), no one name their babies with shu(math in Chinese)

Call me racist.... but it has to do with multiculturalism

Its is nice to see a ealistic discussion on cultural differences and what drives them that did not devolve into cries of racism of some sort.

I'm of Chinese descent and I can tell you an important reason. Most of the kids grew up gambling every day and hence counting money. Most of us older generations grew up with a pack of playing cards within 5 metres.. Gambling is a part of Chinese culture and traditions. That's the real reason. Don't need any scientific research.

Hard times make strong men,strong men makes Happy times, Happy times make weak men, Weak men make Hard times and its a cyclical chain that repeats.. In western Countries with good govts and high standard of living leads to easy choices(alteranative) choices & easily give up for difficult subjects(STEM) and in contrast in eastern countries the lower stardard of living, competition, fewer career options for better life and easy(inefficient ) governments make them choose tougher choices and and put effort & persist, pursue Hard subjects @STEM and succeed.. This inference for this difference in attitude shud be seen from multiple perspectives social, economical, cultural, biological... not to one parameter of agriculture-rice growing..

Simple: they see your hairdress and think, well, I will study math.

I need citations for the half day labor and vacations.

I know hard-working, diligent ppl very poor at math and lazy ppl very good at math. this flick is so ridiculous

Uri Triesman's work at UC Berkeley in the 70s further supports all that is discussed here. Effort + Support = Success and a win win instructional design.

Another difference between the West and Asia is an aspect of religious tradition. Judeo -Christian judges people on their innate character, good vs evil, for example, which is pretty inflexible. Buddhism, however, prefers, " skilled or unskilled", instead. That leaves the individual with the possibility of working for improvement rather than being doomed to having a flawed character. This optimism could help students persist longer in their efforts.

Dairy farming is 365 days a year, no vacations. You milk at sun up and sun down. Based on this assumption, generations of dairy farmer's kids should be good at math. Studied???

Disappointing your mother when it comes to school is one of the worst things a young Japanese kid can do.

It’s definitely the attitude of peoples. Look at the kids here and what do they say? I’m not good at math. Words and beliefs are powerful.

Same reason why blacks are good at athletics: prioritize it and work hard at it.

the real issue is why do some people believe equity is superior to meritocracy? punishing kids for being genetically better at math or working harder than the rest is not only dumb but the perversion of every concept of justice and fairness.

It has been observed that Asians are excelling in international memorization competitions. One key factor contributing to their success is the utilization of fast memory techniques that incorporate the pictorial method, which all memory experts use. Since East Asian languages are inherently pictorial in nature, the process of memorization comes more naturally and effortlessly to them.

We as a species are far smarter than we were 100 years ago because of improvements in education enhancing the brain further and further with each generation. Because education is taken far more seriously in Asian countries Asians have better brains on average. This also explains why Asian students in the United States or other places are still better on average in academic performance despite them being under the same system of education. What I'm saying is that it is indeed effort which makes Asian students smarter, but this effort extends to past generations as well, not just the current.

If we're talking about outside the US, as in, the students being physically in those Asian countries (and not living in Western countries), then it's due to a faster curriculum where an alarming percentage of kids fall behind due to the pace, not the level, but the school teachers could care less, so the parents end up buying extra hours of class after school at cram schools, resulting in a ludicrous amount of problems that need to be solved in a day. Those who practice it more outside of school do better than those who only do the homework given by the teachers. Now, if the teachers taught slower and thorough-er, more kids would have succeeded in Math in school itself, without having to solve extra problems on a daily basis. But as it is, lots of kids from Asian countries think they suck at Math because they don't succeed in the classroom and have to do extra hours of Math during night-time. My hypothesis is that Asian kids have gone through a faster curriculum, so it appears as if they are better at it but in reality, they're simply kids who are just ahead... and probably also taken from upper percentages. Also, as an end note, it is worth noting that cram schools teach you the types of questions that would be on standardized testing-- specific types, and have you practice them in bulk. So it's a type of cheating and if you took those kids who got higher grades, it would be questionable as to whether they also had good Math reasoning, as a good percentage of the grade comes from test-specific practice that is done in bulk.

very interesting content!!

Part of the deficit in the US is that tests are a race (time) and the fundamentals and basics are not emphasized enough. There is too much reliance of wrote memorization and shortcuts or tricks and teaching to the test.

They grow rice in Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia too…

Why do good mathematicians mostly come from the West?

0:58 I suppose the downside of the Asian ethos is that it cajoles them into pursuing what is good for their parents / society, rather than what is good for them as individuals, and perhaps this ends up holding back the true geniuses in Asian cultures from achieving all that they could if they instead pursued what they were naturally drawn to.

There are some important truths here, but his point about mediaeval peasants is largely nonsense: life for them was largely a constant grinding battle against simple starvation, often entailing satisfying a lord's needs before your own. And yes, I was trained as a mediaevalist and teach maths.

Ugh because we're simply forced to study maths from an young age 💀.. trust me it's just that.. if someone is made to do something from an young age they prolly excell at it

As Mike Todd once said, "If I want to be good at math, I hire one" or something to that effect.

Practice makes perfect is always applied for stuff like sports. Why isn't it applied to education anymore? Plus the whole "person who works hard will outperform a genius who doesn't work hard".