Why are Asians good at math? Is it genetic? Malcolm Gladwell offers some explanations......read on

POSTED BY PAMELA YOON DRAKOS

In the new book by Malcolm Gladwell (staff writer for the New Yorker and formerly a business and science reporter at the Washington Post) titled OUTLIERS, The Story of Success, one of the chapters explores why Asians (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Singaporeans) score higher in math....he asks if it is genetic?

Click on the link below to access an excerpt from Chapter 3: Rice Paddies and Math Tests
http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/outliers_excerpt3.html

I strongly believe that Gladwell is on to something here. Growing up in multicultural Malaysia where elementary school kids have a choice of going to a Malay school, Chinese school or Tamil school; it is a well-known fact that Chinese-school kids score highest in math tests....if it is indeed genetic, then the Chinese kids attending elementary school in Malay would score high too. It does not seem like the ethnic Chinese in Malay schools score as high as their Chinese school counterparts. In the chinese schools, kids learn all academic subjects in Mandarin Chinese with 1 hour each of Malay and English per day, from Grades 1-6. In the malay schools, kids learn all academic subjects in Malay with 1 hour of English per day. In the Tamil schools, kids learn all academic subjects in Tamil, with 1 hour each of Malay and English per day, from Grades 1-6. For the Tamil and Mandarin kids, they need to add an extra year (called Remove, essentially Grade 7) which they would transition to Malay, as ALL high school academics are taught in Malay only.

Sounds like a lot of pressure on a child, but it builds a good foundation for language study. I am a product of this Malaysian system (Malaysia's official language is Malay, although it is a British colony. My parents went to school in English). I read & write fluent English and Malay, I speak Cantonese and Mandarin and have studied Arabic and Spanish.

We are living in an increasingly global world. Information is sent across the world in seconds. Business is conducted globally and economies-of-scale is more important than ever before. We need to compete in order to maintain our standards of living. We must prepare our children for this inevitability, for example, "how will our children promote Canadian businesses abroad"? Mandarin is the most spoken language of the world and Mandarin is the second most spoken language of business. The answer is obvious. Our children should be given the opportunity to learn Mandarin. Don't get me wrong. English is still paramount, but having a good grasp of Mandarin will be a great asset.

Michael Phelps goes for the GOLD with Mandarin!

I was watching CNBC a couple of days ago and they aired an ad featuring Michael Phelps trying to learn Mandarin on his laptop with the Rosetta Stone Mandarin program. Phelps was seen with a laptop, earphones and nice pictures, with the audio teaching him how to pronounce the chinese words. Great ad, Rosetta Stone will likely sell a few copies of the software.

Some people have an awesome knack for tonal languages and will have no problem mastering Mandarin through a software at Michael Phelps' age. The fact if the matter is, the younger you start, the better and easier it is to get rid of accents and to be able to master the "tones" of Mandarin. Mandarin is a Level 4 language. Well, what is a Level 4 language? In short, it means that it is way more difficult (4 times) to learn than a romantic language like French, Spanish, etc. It is a tonal language, which means that a slight mispronunciation of the tones could mean something entirely different, which could lead to a major misunderstanding!

"I am trying, but it's the hardest things I have ever done" said Phelps, who landed a sponsorship deal with Rosetta Stone. Is Mandarin that hard? Or is it the time and the timing? I think both. Research shows that children are natural sponges at the early-childhood age. They soak up everything. Also, the earlier you start a child (learning anything, really), and the more time you devote to constant reinforcement, you will get good results. So, instead of waiting till Grade 11 to introduce Mandarin, why not start at preschool/Kindergarten?

Lebron James have been visiting China every summer since 2003. He plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and is already one of China's most popular athletes. But it is still a struggle to chat with the locals. "I am doing greetings and things like that, how to say my name, more basic stuff. I am not trying to have a big conversation, but as far as meeting people and greeting them, thanking them. The basics of being able to have a small conversation". James' motivation is twofold, he wants to show respect for the Chinese while he's in their country, as well as enhance future business opportunities in a country that has more citizens than any other and a booming economy.

It is reported that now that Phelps has 8 medals on his neck, he's going to try to land some major sponsorship deals ala Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, etc. May I suggest that he try really hard at Mandarin a score a deal with China Mobile??? Hmmm......

Blog posted by Pam Drakos