Cantonese Math

Originally posted September 28, 2011

I am reading Outliers by Malcolm Caldwell. It’s a fascinating read in which he discusses how timing, legacy, opportunity, practice and drive (amongst other factors) all play a vital role in success. 

From Amazon: “he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."

In a chapter about China he talks about math - I learned some fascinating stuff.
The number-naming systems in Western languages is illogical.  (yes it is)
We say fourteen, fifteen, sixteen but rather than oneteen, twoteen and threeteen we have the nonsensical eleven, twelve and thirteen. Then we have fourty and sixty and seventy which make some sense but twenty and thirty and fifty don’t. Why not twoty, threety, and fivety?

When we get into the tens the ones number moves from the front to the back of the word: For example the number "four". In fourteen the unit is in front and twenty-four the unit is at the end. Madness.

In the Asian languages 11 is ten-one, twelve is ten-two and so on. Twenty is two-tens then two-tens-one, two-tens-two etc. (Eureka!) Children in Asian countries learn to count a full year ahead of Western kids and can easily do math in their head because they don’t have to translate words to numbers. 

For example: a child here is asked to add thirty-seven and twenty-two. First she has to convert the words to numbers: 37 + 22 then she has to add them: 2 plus 7 is 9 and 30 plus 20 is 50 add those together and you get 59.


Now try it the Asian way: three-tens-seven plus two-tens-two ... the equation is right there IN THE SENTENCE. It’s five-tens-nine. The answer and the number are the same. The 6 year old in me weeps with envy.

Caldwell goes on to point out that disenchantment with mathematics among Western children starts in third or fourth grades and that is perhaps due to the fact that it doesn’t seem to make sense - the basic rules seem arbitrary and complicated.

Asian kids however don’t feel that way. They can a count easily at young age, do sums in their head, hold more numbers in their sweet little heads and work logically with a very transparent system. And if you enjoy something you practice it, try harder, get better at it and rather than being disenchanted you are fluent.