Why asians are good at math

They become hyperintelligent robots. Teachers can help by monitoring the kinds of learning opportunities they give Asian students. Do they treat them like calculators — only giving them rote procedural tasks — or do Asian students get to show their creativity and to present ideas in front of the class? Most people easily recognize overtly racist behavior and language. But I believe we also need to learn how to spot racism in its more subtle forms.

Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Asian communities are more collectivistic than those in the West. Children are brought up with a mentality of upholding the name of the family by excelling academically and career-wise. Asians are also brought up with a different mentality regarding hard work. Complete dedication to academics is taught to children till it becomes ingrained. In Western communities, parents are more concerned with hard work than hard work put in specifically to excel at math and science.

These differences in culture have continued to fuel the excellence of most Asian kids in math and sciences. With almost all children being pushed to do well academically and pursue careers in sciences, most children face tough competition in competitive exams and school exams alike.

Being intellectually gifted is, for Asian communities, the only dependent on how much time and effort children give to their studies. Life apart from academics is overlooked and families continue to push their children to follow a school life dedicated to academics. These practices have continued for a time sufficient enough to make it a norm. Competition pushes children to do better and continue improving until they are part of the cream of the crop of their community.

Even if their families no longer work in the rice paddies, Asian kids inherit the cultural legacy of diligence, and this shows up most prominently in their math abilities. This is a big part of why Asians are good at math. For instance, Chinese is more efficient than English for learning math.

This is primarily due to two factors:. Chinese numbers take less time to pronounce. The human brain stores digits in two-second loops. Because English numbers take longer to pronounce than Chinese numbers, you can hold more Chinese numbers in your mind at one time.

The Cantonese dialect, in particular, allows for storing up to ten digits in a loop. This makes mental math much easier for Chinese speakers than English speakers. Therefore, this has a chance of making Asians better at math. Chinese number systems are more regular. Another math advantage of speakers of Asian languages is the way these languages organize number systems.

Asian language number systems are often more intuitive than the English system. Chinese numbers follow a consistent pattern, whereas in English, number patterns are irregular. Because of these differences, Asian number systems are easier to learn and understand. Therefore, Asian children learn to count much faster than English-speaking children. A four-year-old Chinese child, for example, can usually count to forty, whereas a four-year-old American child can typically only count to fifteen.

The regularity of the number system also means Asian children learn to perform addition and subtraction more easily. Instead of memorizing seemingly arbitrary bits of information, the functions operate as part of a logical system.

Young children are aware of it. On the surface, this narrative sounds like a compliment. But as I have explained in a journal article , there are two problems. First, the narrative is false. Second, it is racist. There are videos on YouTube with several million views asking that question. Research shows considerable variation in mathematical performance among different Asian ethnic groups in the U. A better explanation has to do with education policy and federal immigration laws.