Originally Posted by
JohnGalt2341
I wish I could remember what book I read this in but I can't... it may have been a Malcolm Gladwell book but I'm not positive... anyway... A theory was proposed as to why Asians tend to do well at Mathematics. The theory went something like this... basic Asian numbers are short one syllable words that are easy to learn and remember. And the way their numbers progress is much easier to learn than that of languages like English. Thus, general mathematics tends to come easy for them when they are young. When people do things with ease as children they tend to be more interested in it as they grow into adolescence and adulthood. It's been years since I read this so I know that I'm not explaining it right but it made a lot of sense when I read it.
Here's a comparison... some of the first books kids read when they are young are stuff like Cat in the Hat and Dick and Jane. Stuff like that. It's fairly easy stuff so kids tend to want to learn more. But imagine if the first book you tried to read was The Pterodactyl's Rendezvous. It might turn some kids off from reading. Moral of the story... it's Asian words for numbers that make mathematics easier to learn than most languages.