Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4

Author Topic: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?  (Read 13469 times)

MetalSlimeHunt

  • Bay Watcher
  • Gerrymander Commander
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #15 on: November 15, 2012, 11:26:03 am »

Because Asian Americans top the demographic trend when compared to other American ethnicities.
Rumor 3: In the future Vector finds a time machine and travels to ancient china to teach them the true way.
MSH->MZ

Vector-> ....Confucius?
« Last Edit: November 15, 2012, 11:27:55 am by MetalSlimeHunt »
Logged
Quote from: Thomas Paine
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
Quote
No Gods, No Masters.

Darvi

  • Bay Watcher
  • <Cript> Darvi is my wifi.
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #16 on: November 15, 2012, 11:28:37 am »

-> Isaac Newton?
Logged

Siquo

  • Bay Watcher
  • Procedurally generated
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #17 on: November 15, 2012, 11:42:42 am »

Relevant, sorta:)
ROFLMAO...ok, I gotta start watching that guy's stuff.  :D
Make sure to watch everything by Freddy Wong, he's good.

At maths, too, I guess. ;)
Logged

This one thread is mine. MIIIIINE!!! And it will remain a happy, friendly, encouraging place, whether you lot like it or not. 
will rena,eme sique to sique sxds-- siquo if sucessufil
(cant spel siqou a. every speling looks wroing (hate this))

scriver

  • Bay Watcher
  • City streets ain't got much pity
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #18 on: November 15, 2012, 12:18:20 pm »

Language-based rumors:

Rumor 1: Because Asians (by which they mean Japanese and Chinese people) have an easier counting system, so that kids get to arithmetic faster (posited by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers)

That was an interesting rumour. In what way is it simpler?
Logged
Love, scriver~

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2012, 12:22:24 pm »

Language-based rumors:

Rumor 1: Because Asians (by which they mean Japanese and Chinese people) have an easier counting system, so that kids get to arithmetic faster (posited by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers)
That....makes absolutely no sense to me. Japan and China are base-10 just like the rest of the planet. The "numerals" are different, but I can't see anything inherently better or worse about Sino-Japanese numerals versus Arabic numerals.

The one thing that might be different is that (in Chinese, at least) linguistically it iterates ones (yi), tens (shi), hundreds (bai), thousands (qian), ten-thousands (wan). Having ten-thousand as a ordinal unit is sort of helpful in doing quick mental arithmetic of numbers in a certain range, but that's about it. Especially given that wan was often used classically to mean a generic "many", as in the Daodejing:

Dao give birth to One
One gives birth to Two
Two gives birth to Three
Three gives birth to ten thousand things.


It's got to go beyond East Asia, because the stereotype is typically extended to Indians as well. They're also base-10, and while 10,000 is rendered as "ten thousand", the hundred-thousand has its own unit, the lakh. So one million is rendered as ten lakh, and then ten million (or 1,000 lakh) is one crore (koti in several major dialects). I know the crore still has pretty wide usage in modern India, especially in reporting of financial news.
Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

Vector

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #20 on: November 15, 2012, 12:29:37 pm »

All counting numbers are single-syllable, and instead of having particular words for things like "fourteen" and "forty" you get "ten four" and "four ten" (fuck you very much, German!).  There's a lot less specialized vocabulary, is what I'm saying, whereas in English learning to count up to 20 is a pain in the ass (and in French, there's even more things to run around with things like "eighty" being denoted "four twenties" but "forty" being, well, "forty.").
Logged
"The question of the usefulness of poetry arises only in periods of its decline, while in periods of its flowering, no one doubts its total uselessness." - Boris Pasternak

nonbinary/genderfluid/genderqueer renegade mathematician and mafia subforum limpet. please avoid quoting me.

pronouns: prefer neutral ones, others are fine. height: 5'3".

Darvi

  • Bay Watcher
  • <Cript> Darvi is my wifi.
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #21 on: November 15, 2012, 12:40:13 pm »

All counting numbers are single-syllable, and instead of having particular words for things like "fourteen" and "forty" you get "ten four" and "four ten" (fuck you very much, German!).  There's a lot less specialized vocabulary, is what I'm saying, whereas in English learning to count up to 20 is a pain in the ass (and in French, there's even more things to run around with things like "eighty" being denoted "four twenties" but "forty" being, well, "forty.").
In French, 98 is "four twenty and ten eight". That's four mostly unrelated numbers for a two digit number.
Logged

Levi

  • Bay Watcher
  • Is a fish.
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #22 on: November 15, 2012, 12:42:51 pm »

All counting numbers are single-syllable, and instead of having particular words for things like "fourteen" and "forty" you get "ten four" and "four ten" (fuck you very much, German!).  There's a lot less specialized vocabulary, is what I'm saying, whereas in English learning to count up to 20 is a pain in the ass (and in French, there's even more things to run around with things like "eighty" being denoted "four twenties" but "forty" being, well, "forty.").
In French, 98 is "four twenty and ten eight". That's four mostly unrelated numbers for a two digit number.

That sounds horrifying.   :o
Logged
Avid Gamer | Goldfish Enthusiast | Canadian | Professional Layabout

Darvi

  • Bay Watcher
  • <Cript> Darvi is my wifi.
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #23 on: November 15, 2012, 12:47:16 pm »

Well, depending on region there's words for seventy, eighty and ninety, but it's probably far from the norm.
Logged

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #24 on: November 15, 2012, 12:49:07 pm »

Now I'd love to see if anyone has ever done a study to see if the French lose wars in the modern era because of their fucked-up counting system. :P

"Fire on map grid soixante-quinze!"
"Wait..you mean map grid tres vingt et quinze?"
"No, no, no you fools, it's sept dix et cinq!"
Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

MetalSlimeHunt

  • Bay Watcher
  • Gerrymander Commander
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #25 on: November 15, 2012, 12:49:58 pm »

German counting is the same as English, with the caveat that the base comes second. So 54 is literally "Four Fifty". Ugh.
Logged
Quote from: Thomas Paine
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
Quote
No Gods, No Masters.

Pnx

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #26 on: November 15, 2012, 01:04:14 pm »

Vector-> ....Confucius?
Somehow I think if Vector were secretly Confucius, she'd take the patriarchal aspects out of the society.

German counting is the same as English, with the caveat that the base comes second. So 54 is literally "Four Fifty". Ugh.
Dutch does the same thing, the Dutch counting system used to give me a lot of trouble. The other thing was that they randomly add a "t", to the beginning of eighty in a series that is mostly just "single digit name + tig to denote times ten".
Logged

da_nang

  • Bay Watcher
  • Argonian Overlord
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #27 on: November 15, 2012, 01:06:18 pm »

Logged
"Deliver yesterday, code today, think tomorrow."
Ceterum censeo Unionem Europaeam esse delendam.
Future supplanter of humanity.

Ultimuh

  • Bay Watcher
  • BOOM! Avatar gone! (for now)
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #28 on: November 15, 2012, 01:09:46 pm »

Try Danish numerals...
Eh.. Having lived most of my life in Greenland (Danish is like second language there.),
I don't have much problems with these numerals.
Just don't ask me about the Greenlandic language,
I have always sucked at it despite the fact that I have lived there.
Logged

alway

  • Bay Watcher
  • 🏳️‍⚧️
    • View Profile
Re: So ... why are Asians stereotyped as math geniuses?
« Reply #29 on: November 15, 2012, 01:10:48 pm »

Quote
In 2011, some 7 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds had completed at least a master's degree. From 1995 to 2011, the attainment rate of a master's degree or higher increased for Whites (from 5 to 8 percent), Blacks (from 2 to 4 percent), and Asians/Pacific Islanders (from 11 to 17 percent). In 2011, the percentage of Asians/Pacific Islanders who had attained at least a master's degree in 2011 (17 percent) was higher than that of their peers of any other race/ethnicity
sauce: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=27

Looks like there are similar trends of BS degrees.

So that's part of it.
Logged
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4