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/sci/ - Science & Math

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3954660 No.3954660 [Reply] [Original]

What cultural influences exist that may explain Asians excelling at math?

>> No.3954670

>>3954660
Hard work, Tiger Mothers, and the words that describe numbers. (""Eleven in Chinese is "ten one". Twelve is "ten two", and so on. Twenty is "Two ten", twenty-one is "two ten one" (2*10 + 1), and so on up to 99. One-hundred is "one hundred". One-hundred and one is "one hundred zero one"."")

[Asians are direct descendants of Ancient Aliens]

>> No.3954667
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3954667

work ethic

/thread

>> No.3954672

Mothers that are more concerned with their child's success than their own bullshit.

>> No.3954674

>>3954667
Black people bad at school = dumb smelly niggy genes.

Asains good at school = work ethic?

Wat

>> No.3954685

>>3954674
I hope that thought process makes your mediocrity more palatable.

>> No.3954687

their education systems. go check out their maths syllabus. it is fucking ridiculous. they are learning calculas in our year 7. same for their science subjects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Certificate_of_Education_Examination
"In other subjects, such as the sciences like Chemistry, Physics, the syllabi covered in HKCEE are similar to that of the SAT Subject Tests sat in Grade 12, but it is arguably easier to obtain a score of 760 on the SAT Subject Tests than to obtain a grade of A in the HKCEE examination despite the fact that Grade 12 is theoretically equivalent to Form 6 under the Hong Kong school system."

if u look at asian americans, or australian americans (these 2 i've had experience with), they aren't that special with maths and science.

>> No.3954689

>>3954670

>one hundred zero one

How in the hell is that more clear than 101 or one hundred and one?

>> No.3954700

>>3954687

btw they take HKCEE at form 5. so its 1 year before americans take SAT. they have another even more fucking difficult exam to take before uni, which is called A levels, so imagine how much more maths and science they already know when they start uni.

>> No.3954704

>>3954689
because it's not "one hundred zero one" its like "hung tsao won" or some shit where its three simple syllables

>> No.3954712

>>3954704

And 101 is three simple decimals.

>> No.3954717

>>3954704
false. it is 4 syllables when they say it out. and it doesn't fucking matter anyways, coz they don't use chinese numbers when calculating. everyone uses arabic numbers.

>> No.3954775

Chinese cultures (including some non-China countries as well to various degrees) have a historical drive to be well educated and do well on exams. This is largely due to a culture of meritocracy. Think of it as the Asian dream.

In imperial China, courtiers and other government officials were selected each year on the basis of a national exam. It didn't matter if you were from a dirt-poor background, if you did the best on the exam, you would become one of the Emperor's closest advisers. Many rural families/villages with no education would often raise a single child to study as hard as possible for that test in hopes of getting a government post, and this actually came true in a lot of cases. This fascination with education bled into cultural attitudes. At the time, the poorest intellectual was given more status than the richest merchant.

The specific fascination with math/science/engineering is relatively new. 400+ years ago, the greatest Asian intellectuals were all poets, artists, and courtiers. All Asian countries post WW2 were extremely backward technology wise, and a lot of governments that came into power were authoritarian in nature but still had a tenuous grasp on public support. From this, the social contract between people and governments was not freedom based, but standard-of-living based or welfare based. The combination of authoritarian government and need for economic and tech development lead to huge incentives to study anything that was apolitical and of practical use, namely math and sciences.

So in general, it's a combination of historic valuations of education + modern economic/political incentives to study sciences.

>> No.3954780

confucian work ethic and the chinese abacus

>> No.3954782

They have the persistence and work ethic to stick at the subject for long enough to get good at it.

That's it.

>> No.3954786

>>3954775
cont:

For Asian Americans, the answer is simply a matter of self selection. A vast majority of Asian immigrants who manage to get visas to America (or europe) are motivated and relatively intelligent scientists/engineers because does your country really need more liberal arts majors. These people perform like the upper-middle class because they _are_ actually the upper-middle class. Then they teach their children the importance of math, both because it's what got them here and because they can't really help too much with the history/english stuff. I would venture to guess that most Asian immigrant parents who were engineers/scientists taught their kids some level of math in their own time.

>> No.3954791

Funny how you people have accepted the weird leftist idea of irreligious creationism/tabula rasa and believe that group differences are all because of culture. They're more intelligent on average. Average IQ 106. Deal with it.

>> No.3954795

tl;dr
breaking news: if you study hard, you usually become good at whatever you're studying. What a revelation.

>> No.3954810

>>3954791
i was born in hong kong, and grew up there. i stayed with their education system for 9 years, before i left hong kong.

and it is a cultural thing. many of them have 2-3 hours of private tutorial after school. if u r a good tutor in hong kong, u can become a millionaire. u will also become a celebrity with huge posters of u seen around town. it is fucking crazy.

check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fx7YNEFtdA

>> No.3954817

>>3954791
You're so edgy, man. I bet it took you a while to come up "irreligious creationism". That was really creative.

>> No.3954824

>>3954795
>>3954810
breaking news people with an IQ of 80 can learn quantum physics if they just try a hard

>> No.3954829

>>3954824

>iq is absolute and definite

If you are taught how to answer IQ tests, you can seem to be a lot smarter than you actually are!

>> No.3955826

bump

>> No.3955866

>>3954791

I bet if you went to china, and gave an IQ test to everyone, including the dirt farmers, It would most likely be closer to 100, or likely, even lower.

In the US, the average is probably higher because the only chinese/asians that came here are the smarter ones to begin with.

>> No.3955880
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3955880

> have limited to no opportunities to develop academically
> move to developed nation
> like a kid in a fucking candy store

Meanwhile everyone else takes it for granted, doesn't try, doesn't succeed, and complains about turking jerbs.

>> No.3955888

Why are koreans so good at starcraft? O_o

>> No.3955896

>>3955888
Rapid cultural and technological advancement fueled by the end of the Korean War coupled with a lack of participation in traditional team sports developed a small trend for "e-sports" which reached critical mass whereby people are drawn to it in greater numbers.

>> No.3955921

>>3954667
This is so close to my dad it's scary ...

It's Chinese education and work ethics. He is an immigrant and stereotypically owns a coin-operated laundry business. He is probably better at math than me due to his elementary education, but if I made C's or even B's in high school, I'd be on the receiving end of a belt and semester-long tirades.

Fuck I still get picked on for being in BU and not Harvard or somewhere.

>> No.3955939

>>3954660
monosyllabic numbers - easier to juggle around in the brain

>> No.3955945

>>3954660
rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning rote learning

>> No.3956054

bump

>> No.3956796

>>3955945
>buttmad whitey who can only blame rote learning for Asians excelling

>> No.3956804

Why are they excelling at everything?

>> No.3956824

>>3954775
>>3954786
Probably the best answer in the thread. It has almost everything to do with cultural differences. Chinese culture (I don't know about Japanese or Korean) has always emphasized education as the way out of poverty and into prestige. Western culture instead emphasizes entrepreneurship and business as the way out of poverty.

in short

Asians: get smart -> move up
Western: be your own boss -> move up

>> No.3956858

>>3955921
>Fuck I still get picked on for being in BU and not Harvard or somewhere.
Have you tried telling him that in America there is no difference between upper level universities except price?

>> No.3956886

>>3954775

The problem is, at least in America, that to Asians it isn't about education or learning. It's the consequences of it, which is HURR DURR MORE MONIEZZZZZ

Their culture doesn't support actual learning, it's more about using education to gain a financial advantage. Same with the jews, Nigerians, and some Middle Eastern groups. These people don't actually value knowledge, they just value the fact that education leads to better paying jobs.

I don't know about Asians in Asia, but Asian-Americans might be better than average at math because they're forced to study it all day erry day, anyone who spends more time doing something than someone else will be better at it.

>> No.3956916

>>3956886
Nice strawman and generalizations there.

>> No.3956940

>>3956886
I wouldn't say that Asians in America are "doing it for the moniez" but to save face. It's not quite social standing and it's not quite economic wellbeing, and it's not easy to explain to someone not in the culture. Your level of education and your intelligence tie into this a lot more than your finances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept)

>> No.3956947

>>3956940
correction: not to save face, but instead to not lose it. Subtle but important difference.

>> No.3956956

>>3956916

Thanks bro, too bad it's true, inb4 I'm racist. I'm in fact from a culture such as one of the ones I listed.

>>3956940
To me it seems like a combination of face and money. The money is a motivator, but if you are unable to accomplish something good. You have lost face both for yourself and your family/parents.

>> No.3956961

>>3956947
>>3956956

Haha, we said the same thing.

>> No.3956972

>>3956956
>The money is a motivator, but if you are unable to accomplish something good. You have lost face both for yourself and your family/parents.

but in that respect, is Asian culture or any of the other ones you listed really that different from Western culture?

>> No.3957069

>>3956972

Yes, in that in western culture, we don't beat our children for bad grades. We don't make our children's lives completely revolving around academics in hopes that they get a high paying jobs. In western culture, a child who wishes to study, for example, art or anthropology in university would not be scoffed at.

Also, this stuff can't go on forever. There is a limit to the amount of engineer/doctors there can be, eventually the competition will get ridiculous (at least in Asian countries where it already is ridiculous), in America, eventually there won't be enough engineering/doctor jobs to keep up with the amount that are being put out. Already there is a decline in electrical engineering jobs.

>> No.3957082

>>3957069
Then Africa will be next.
Maybe the Chinese will be able to finish what the Brits started.