How The Chinese Language Makes Math Easier - Linguistic Analysis

[@JerryLiuYT]

Channel dedicated to Chinese language and culture: kzbin.info/door/_E_R34VQo47FfnwF3ABlDQ

[@dr.vicious5374]

Jerry Liu you are excellent, brother. Another thing that the know it all ignorant Westerner doesn't know is that Japan uses the same numeric system.

[@nik9643]

by same logic Indic (Indian languages) are easier than western languages eg. seven hundred= satshe , twenty four= chowis

[@lancegoerner1719]

Jerry, in 2002 I lived in China for 7 years. If more Chines people were like you, I would still be living there. Not to sound Gay, but I love your style, my brother!

[@c.d3304]

That would be interesting to see what advantages English has that Chinese does not have, in terms of understanding maths concepts...

[@WellBehavedForeigner]

The only way to increase literacy in Mandarin is to do mathematics in Mandarin

[@KJParadise]

I teach math. I noticed how Chinese numbers were written and my first thought was, "wow, this makes addition a lot more obvious!" Great video

[@wongjason886]

Chinese can’t understand how 11 to 20 in English works, they don’t have such vocabulary, they repeat with each 10, so 11=ten and one (十一). I didn’t realize it until I start learning English. We don’t have the vocabulary of million, billion, trillion too.

[@moldveien1515]

@@wongjason886 as someone studying chinese now its very nice to learn numbers as its very simple to understand 365三百六十五 i mean its quite simple in a way 3x hundreds 6x tens plus 5, though once we get above 10000 it is hard for me with No million billion etc etc

[@jeremym3892]

This is so cool! I am Ethiopian and we have a base 10 language though I never realized this until now. Our #10 is Asir and 11 Asra-ahnd (10+1). I learned more about my language listening to you talk about yours. Awesome!

[@keithreay]

This is a brilliant explanation. Thank you for this.

[@1313hyme]

I never thought of it that way. I always knew the Chinese language had something to do with being smarter in math. I came to USA when I was 5 years old. I think in Chinese when I count and do math. I also accelerated in math and science (but not in history or English, lol). Most of my Chinese friends were also good at math and we all do think in Chinese when we count or do numbers. Now this is a good explanation why I think in Chinese when I do math and why I was good at it too. I did get 100 on my 9th grade Region test without even trying, lol. Thanks for the explanation and you confirmed my theory.

[@plumeria66]

I speak English better than Chinese but I also count in Chinese and memorize numbers in Chinese.

[@NoirHammer]

I read about this language difference over twenty years ago in a math book. They also mentioned the Chinese thought process on division which they see as "decomposition". Makes sense.

[@ronaldtan2885]

Yes, it makes sense. I had similar experience learning math as a kid in Malaysia, well described in this two-minute video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYPXdXyjjNuYi5I

[@lurker039]

interesting. yes, i agree that the multiplication table in Chinese is a lot easier to recite. cheers

[@我痛恨的平凡]

Yes!I like multiplication table..Lol

[@kevincasino4535]

Nice art, btw.

[@IM95gamergirl]

I didn't know this and my mind is blown right now. Maybe i should start learning Chinese. Great video! :)

[@lennon_richardson]

I have this crazy idea of studying math in Mandarin! you've confirmed my belief that this is a good idea. thanks.

[@What_am_I_suppose_to_type_here]

@PILAR JOHNSON how about now

[@lennon_richardson]

@Tafari Kelly nah I went for music instead

[@andore8639]

@@lennon_richardson lmao

[@JG-gp9yh]

As a Chinese I would agree with most of your points but I also think that the main reason for the relatively better math grades of Asian background students, Chinese in particular, than the others, is the way parents pressure the kids. I have never skipped school and never got involved in fights, I had been a pretty good behaving student when I was young and guest what, I got beat up by my dad pretty often simply because I am stupid at math and other number related subjects and I know my case is not unique at all. After I came to Australia for highschool I was amazed to find that my math is above average and all of a sudden this confidence began to grow in me. Few years later I graduated with an accounting degree...Don't you worry mate I am not a practicing accountant.

[@daigamessg6725]

this true.in Malaysia school system,during primary 6 examination,the mathematic exam are set in 4 languages,English,Chinese,Malay and Tamil,the best results always come from Chinese school.

[@blessingsfromheaven6246]

Jerry, Thanks! All three of your initial points are correct on why Chinese tend to be very good in math. Then, your other four main points are also very good. Also, your inclusion of the numbers, in Chinese, on the screen helped a lot to those who are not familiar with the Chinese characters. Maybe if you included Traditional Chinese characters it may help the understanding with those who are learning Traditional Chinese: Simplified Chinese 万 Traditional Chinese 萬

[@bryonymason3104]

This video is really interesting and insightful. It's 'Chinese Language Day' soon and my mum's a teacher so I'll share this video with her to show to her tutor class!

[@Shenzhou.]

Fun fact: You can also use these two Chinese units (千万) to mean "Definitely" (i.e. "千万不要忘" or "Definitely do not forget") Good for people learning both Chinese and Chinese units. Awesome video by the way! 中文万岁, 万岁, 万万岁!

[@factsverse9957]

"10 million"

[@KEVROREACTS]

This is awesome to find out my country's system is totally inferior lol.

[@telepcanin2878]

not only that, on average eastern Asian's brains tend to be 200 grams heavier than the European's.

[@efeadin3082]

does weight of the brain mater ? then an elephant must be wiser than us

[@misserniki6082]

@@efeadin3082 humans brain-to-body ration is huge compared to elephants though, about 1/40 to 1/560 respectively

[@wasay456]

Very interesting. My native language is Farsi (Persian) and it acts the same when it comes to multiplication. Teaching my kids the tables, I just found it awkward in English as in Persian it actually flows like a song-ish so it is Three Four Twelve (3 x4 =12). I have also noticed that Persian makes memorizing long numbers easier as "AND" is just an infliction instead of a separate word.

[@JYHRO0]

@ Wasay N Farsi it’s easier for you because you are Farsi. For me it is a thousand times more difficult. I learned latin when I was young and it’s the same principle as Farsi when it comes to grammar and I couldn’t imagine that people really spoke it for real. I thought it was a made up language to make priests look intelligent. So it’s only easy for you because you were raised in it

[@ronaldtan2885]

Indeed interesting. I had similar experience learning math as a kid in Malaysia, well described in this two-minute video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYPXdXyjjNuYi5I

[@yuezzzhang5820]

Short explanation: In Chinese, people tend to say the smaller number first when it comes to multiplication. So when we say 5 10 we mean 5*10, also literally means five tens, in other words, 50. When we say 10 5 it means 15, literally TEN AND FIVE. It's not assumed multiplication anymore when you say "10" first.

[@cliffli1121]

here is the explain: from 1 -> 10 In Chinese is: 一 ，二，三，四，五，六，七，八，九，十。 So the 11 in Chinese is 十一 （10 + 1）, 12 is 十二 . Then what about 66？ 66 is " 六 十 六 " (6 times 10 plus 6)

[@AravindRavi_sword_of_science]

Nan Li 66 is written as 6 times 10 plus 6 but using Chinese numbers you have written 6 10 6. Now how am I to understand that it is a multiplication between the first six and ten followed by an addition of the result with six ? As he explains in the video, when two numbers are placed side by side it is assumed to be multiplication. So how is that 66 ? Should not it be 6 times 10 times 6 ?

[@chinagreatcivilizationtang8408]

Every Chinese Knows 六十六 means 6*10+6, 十（10）when use is individually 十means 10,when it's used with other characters together it became a word like hundred, the same as 千（thousand），万（ten thousand），百万（million），千万（ten million），亿（ten thousand by ten thousand 0.1 trillion），兆（亿by亿）.

[@cliffli1121]

no 6x10 + 6 = 66. always calculate the multiplication at first. so 6 + 6 x 10 = 66 as well. let's back to the concept. 六十 = 6 x10 = 60. 六十六 = 6 x 10 + 6

[@timelessd9096]

六十 means 6 10s (6 of tens means 60), therefore 六十六 is 66.

[@elohime]

對於超級初學者，六十六容易被理解成“六個十六”。

[@adelinod.5568]

The hard truth for us westerners is that you chinese people work way harder in maths, as a general rule. By the way, I'm subscribing to your channel. Cheers from Spain!

[@Kleo3392]

As he said, when you speak an analytic language which talks about math is a simple and self-explanatory way, you have a much easier time understanding it and are therefore more likely to enjoy it.

[@pearltears8039]

I wish everyone was as easy to understand as him.....thank you for the info awesome😁

[@dunai2012]

one more thing I would like to add is that when you start to learn algebra, typically additions/subtractions always have plus/minus signs like 'a + b= c' but when it comes to multiplications, the operator * disappears like 'ab = c'. Chinese language matches this phenomenon exactly. when you say three five fifteen, there is no need to say multiply because multiplication operation is known, instead, when you want to express three plus five, you must pronounce + sign like san(three) jia(plus)wu(five)dengyu(equals)ba(eight). So syntactically, Chinese language matches algebraic expressions exactly.

[@predrag-peterilich900]

Good job, Jerry, what you say makes sense. I also like how, in Mandarin, you express the days in a week by what is a pure mathematical function: 星期(argument). If argument s 1 the day is Monday, if it's four, it is Thursday, and so on.

[@katakana1]

I like how some days of the week in English sound like their number if you start from Monday: Monday = One-day Tuesday = Twos-day Thursday = Fours-day Friday = Five-day Sunday = Seven-day

[@brits6251]

Commenting twice, I love math but I've noticed the skill differences. Thank you for this clarification! Im really amused by the new understanding and Im going to try to teach my nephew in a simpler (more effective) way.

[@male6561]

Super interesting! Thank you! :D

[@ERROR204.]

If you don't have at least 百万 subscribers in a year I'll be surprised. Great content very interesting personality. Good job man.

[@airmanjoe]

This is so cool. Thanks for the explanation.

[@thedoubtfuls]

u articulated the phonological loop problem better than profs, well done. nice to see you on this subject, used to seeing u on mma / kungfu stuff

[@kyanbaghdasaryan1332]

Hey Jerry. Nice video. I've read this in a book, "Outliers". Interesting!

[@anachronist003]

You are totally right about the "teens" (#11-19). I teach elementary English in Taiwan and the students always have trouble counting those numbers. Once we hit the twenties and up, no problem.

[@johnhare8208]

I feel like I do math much more visually rather than linguistically.

[@curtis5809]

Man, amazingly clear explaination and insight into the chinese language and mathamatics. This makes total sense. We should all learn chinese and it would probably help us in many areas in life! Thanks man

[@linuxman777]

English is a germanic language. Not a latin based language. However Most Germanic, Latin, And Celtic languages share these similar properties of numbers.

[@JerryLiuYT]

+linuxman777 English is a mutt language. It has elements of Latin, Germanic, and Greek in it. It's always placed close to the Germanic language on the language tree, but it's not part of the same stem.

[@peterfireflylund]

English is indisputably a Germanic language. Sure, it has lots of French and Latin loanwords but it is still a Germanic language.

[@LiborSupcik]

English is disputably a latin language since latin precedes protogermanic

[@stevenliu1377]

@@LiborSupcik The evidence for English being a Germanic language is too overwhelming for there to be any legitimate dispute. English is no more a Romance language than Korean is a Sino-Tibetan language (which it isn't, despite more than half of Korean vocabulary tracing their ancestry back to Chinese roots).

[@illiiilli24601]

@@stevenliu1377 You're completely correct. Although English is a Germanic language, you cannot deny the influence that Latin and the Romance languages have had on English. Likewise, you can't deny that Korean and Japanese have had a lot of influence by Sinitic languages.

[@Innercitywomanperspective]

Damn, shame. I've been saying this since the beginning of time. Thank you for the truth Chinese man. Lol

[@sincere91005]

That was the story of my life I would have to ignore my teachers in grade school BC too much words would confuse me. thanks for the insight.

[@waellerbe]

+Keisha Townes I would have a *similar* appreciation for the experience of learning Math at an early age. I can not recall whether the early instruction made an emphasis on the actual "language" of Math. At this stage in life, I have a *greater* appreciation for the actual words that can help us understand Math. I also appreciate the Presenter's explanation of the difference of education of Chinese and Western cultures. I honestly appreciate what he had to say about the different ways to Math based on the language that is taught to the child.

[@bumpty9830]

Very interesting idea. Love it. That said, it's effectively a math-specific version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which seems to be much more interesting than true.

[@UpRoaryus]

I find that it is common for students who are more comfortable in English or language or social studies classes are the ones having difficulty with the math classes. They think of the maths as very different way of learning. The problem is that it is being taught wrong because this is true even of the TEACHERS that those who interface well with the numbers and the maths, tend to have some trouble with the communication and language facets of interacting, so that those who understand the math best are lacking in the ability to explain it well to others who do not. The ones who DO have the natural language ability to communicate it, often don't understand the math as well because it hasn't been taught to them correctly. People who can do both with equal adeptness are seemingly more rare than either who can do one or the other well. Putting this insight together with the TED Talk insight from Randy Palisoc's "Math isn't hard, It's a language" is even more enlightening as to why so many kids are struggling with this subject. I find that in my tutoring hs kids in math, the ones who struggle are often very good in their English or arts classes, but feel that they aren't good at math. This is usually because they haven't been given the vocabulary of the math first before being asked to manipulate it. They aren't putting the basic conceptual representations of the math words into their heads first, so no wonder the kids don't get what to do with the equations! I love the way the Chinese represents the fractions, though - I am going to use that in my tutoring sessions with kids that struggle with that. I have found that the key to making math accessible to kids is making the language of math makes some concrete sense to them about what it represents first. Then, once they understand what they are manipulating, it becomes much easier to expand concepts and their confidence grows exponentially. I usually tell the ones who feel confident in Language/arts classes but not in math because they don't feel they are naturally good at it, that if they stick with me for a little bit, I will help them make math their bitch before the end of the year. It's just a matter of finding the right words to put to the concepts ....

[@JerryLiuYT]

+UpRoaryus great points!!

[@DraftWinCat]

Perhaps learning chemistry in Chinese is simpler because each chemical element is named with just one Chinese character, which makes the naming of chemical elements more straightforward. At first glance, you can often discern whether an element is a metal, a non-metal, or typically a gas based on the structure of Chinese characters. The naming of substances is also more straightforward.

[@KuraSourTakanHour]

Definitely Chinese number words makes math more intuitive, sometimes the number writing is shorter or longer than Arabic numeral writing (Numbers like 2345 are much longer as 二千三百四十五、but 80000 would only be 八万). I learned from Japanese, but they have very similar approach to math, like 三分の二 or "2 of 3 parts".

[@lingfengshan9501]

You are right. In Chinese 2/3 is called “三分之二” 。The similarity is obvious.

[@Gugeoji._.]

Mr マックラ the Japanese の can write as 之 in kanji but after ww2 they stopped using it, so Chinese 三分之二 and Japanese 三分の二 is basically the same.

[@alistairferguson6590]

So when he said 3×5=15 in Chinese is said as 3515, how do we know not to interperet this as the number 3515?

[@felton-rx3ue]

@@alistairferguson6590 3515 is the way you process in your mind, but in writing it must be 3×5=15.

[@michelng5630]

I am Chinese who grew up in a non-Chinese country. Never had any problem with math. It’s in our DNA.

[@jontlchiu]

Yeah, sometimes I had hard time saying those long ass fucking number in English, even I been in the U.S. for a long ass time. In the military, they try to simplify it by just reading long digit number in a single unit, let say 14235 it would be "One, Four, Two, Three, Five." But, when I do math, it is all Chinese in my head. Ha!

[@JerryLiuYT]

Nice :)

[@hary0198]

correct, language affect the way you think 👌 I am wondering how grammar affect the way we think, like we want to say I go to office yesterday, in English we need to use "went" making me speak very slow when I initially learn how to speak english

[@kawrno5396]

The point number 2 and 3 is true for Bangla/Bengali language also.

[@JerryLiuYT]

Nice!

[@WODEMAYA]

Aiya Maya!!!This is soooo true !!Great explanation

[@ogeidnomar4601]

I agree with what you said towards the end. That's why I encourage "neologisms" when the need arises, in order to convey ideas that may not normally be possible without having to "describe the concept" instead of just having a word for it.

[@jackzhong7434]

the Chinese itself is based on math rules mostly. Instead of saying beef, it's cow meat. instead of kitten, it's little cat. instead of pork, it's pig meat, etc. a lot easier to understand and learn.

[@leezhieng]

I do agree with your point about the multiplication table. It's a lot easier to memorize it in chinese. Our teacher even taught us to memorize the tangent, cosine and sine functions using only 3 Chinese words in hokkien dialect.

[@JerryLiuYT]

+Lee Zhi Eng that's cool! Teach me!

[@leezhieng]

Usually in english they memorize SOHCAHTOA which has no meaning, but in Chinese Hokkien we used TOA CAH SOH which literally means 大脚嫂 (big-footed woman) lol. It's easier to memorize and only takes 3 words.

[@JerryLiuYT]

Very interesting. SOHCAHTOA What memories :)

[@sekoushariff9155]

Dude your awesome. This was a very great explanation of how to simplifying things. Now I need to learn Chinese lol.

[@JerryLiuYT]

Thanks for watching!

[@frzh0626]

你所说的三四一十二的表达方式不怎么能算是中文在数学上的优势。换句话讲，小学乘法口诀表之容易理解 和不容易遗忘才是优势。There is no doubt you have present something most of us haven't noticed, which is incredible. I'm so glade you can enlighten and share with us.

[@trommelbiel]

I am learning Chinese now and I am enjoying it. English language is actually more difficult than Chinese.

[@YanLi1121]

k odu try to read and write.

[@trommelbiel]

Yes, I do read and write pinyin as well as chat with my Chinese friends via wechat in Pinyin and English. I am pretty happy with my level so far. My problem is the native Chinese speak very fast but I am getting there.

[@YanLi1121]

k odu nobody uses pinyin.. Pinyin just helps very little children to learn, after 7 YO, nobody uses it.

[@trommelbiel]

Yan Li I will eventually learn hanzi but it can be intimidating at first. I just want to be able to speak Mandarin and understand native speakers because I plan to visit my friends in shenzhen and Guangdong ASAP.

[@YanLi1121]

k odu guangdong more commonly use Cantonese, however the writing system is same. Shenzhen is an immigration city, Mandarine is more popular. No need to "learn" the writing system, as it is difficult. I'd like to reading something that I like in the languages I want to learn.

[@wutevrgoez.wr0ng]

This was absolutely helpful!!👍🏼

[@joeysherrett]

Awesome breakdown!

[@glotsalot8191]

Thanks for that excellent explanation. I was so curious the first time I learned the Chinese 10K (Wan) concept. This helps. Have you thought about teaching Chinese or English? if so, come by our site and have a look.

[@ngchorhong3174]

I am a Chinese boy from Malaysia This video is very accurate and I never really noticed it until now Another thing to point out about Chinese is all words can be categorised into four ways or four different tones of pronouncing them Here are the four types of symbols that you see above the pinyin of every word (some have none but those have exceptions) --- (same pitch all the way ) / ( Raising your voice from low to high pitch) V ( normal to low back to normal pitch) \ ( short and strong sound) Even if it's the same pinyin, a lot of words have the same symbol and thus the same sound but you write them differently For other symbols of the same pinyin there are also another bunch of words that have that symbol's sound but write differently This is why most words can be mistaken for others due to the fact that they share the same sound and pinyin unless accompanied by other words in the same sentence to specify what you are actually referring to Since pinyin does not give you a clue on how to write the stated word and just by looking at the word does not mean you can immediately know what pinyin it has, I find Chinese really interesting

[@netflixpakistan5730]

My favorite channel

[@LiborSupcik]

I think you are on to something here as a little edge [comparing to the European peers] in addition and multiplication would help to make the reward and motivation circuits for maths in otherwise disadvantaged kid.

[@lylvls]

Chinese also has only one syllable for every number from 0 to 10, it's much more efficient to communicate with as well.

[@ericchengtv3506]

Seven is the only English number with 2 syllables

[@lylvls]

@@ericchengtv3506 yes, strictly speaking. But numbers five, six and eight requires the mouth to form more than one shape, they're not straight forward single sound.

[@hananokuni2580]

Counting in English is base-20, like that of most other European languages, including French. In French, to say 40 one says "2 twenties", to say 60, "3 twenties", and to say 80, "4 twenties". This dates back to thousands of years ago when most Indo-European language speakers engaged in cattle herding and in a society centered around this it was customary to count fingers plus toes (hence the base-20) since heads of cattle and livestock were the most commonly counted item. This custom survived to the present day in the way that numbers are counted in European languages. In Chinese and other East Asian languages, counting has always been base-10. This is the result of China's agrarian past and long period of civilization, in which it was often necessary to count large quantities of items, such as grains of rice or millet, beams of wood, bolts of clothing, etc. Eventually, base-10 was adopted as it was more practical in this setting.

[@makingitchina418]

wow first i was just gonna say its cool i know this already, but at the end when you said "culture matters and languages are so powerful", i was like "wow" cause im writting a book about just that!

[@mgtowlite7414]

Thanks Jerry, I feel slightly better at being second best in Maths compared to a HK girl in my school so many years ago. She was actually a nice person and we got along.

[@marytredinnick3366]

I remember first being introduced to multiplication as a child and they used the word "sets". I was sooo confused until my mom explained that 4 times 3 was just four three's! That was a light bulb moment for me and I still remember it at 60😂

[@UpRoaryus]

"mind equals blown" Wow. Fascinating! I only recently learned that Chinese has no past or future tense linguistically either... That shed a lot of light on some things that are different in perspectives culturally.

[@wodemoshou]

I keep telling people chinese is harder to learn at begging but easier to learn after. Because the vocabularies are pretty much like what the op explained for math, we don’t have that many new words for nee things, it’s all about combination of existing words which could be easier figured out based on each word’s meaning. It’s like a lego game, you know each piece of LEGO and the bigger combinations are definitely related to the meaning of small ones.

[@obsoleteprofessor2034]

Jerry.. C'est moi encore.. Learning to count as a kid was just parroting the numbers with no real understanding of weight/value. In later classes, what threw me with the introduction of base systems was that altho the base 10 system had 10 characters, it was hard for me to see, being that the symbols were 0 -9 and no "ten".. base 2 there was no 2... then I got really screwed with base 16. Great stuff.. Thank you! (there is a school house scene in Fahrenheit 451 where the kids are reciting the times tables the British way that as an American I find hard to follow)

[@ericchengtv3506]

5:00 English-speaker can say fractions like "3 out of 4"

[@tiberiustheweaponsmaster4621]

The lack of consistency in English and other Indo-European number systems in terms of sounds is due to sound shift and evolution. One may not think of it, but the English "eleven" is derived from the Proto-Germanic "Ainalif" from "Aina" 1, and "lif" remainder, left, ect. The evolution of this word became "eleven" though Old English's "Endloefen" which means the same thing, but people wanted easier pronounciation over instant recognition of meaning. A natural shift in languages.

[@JerryLiuYT]

Very interesting :)

[@nachannachle2706]

Haha, I already had an idea of what you were going to say, although I know very little Chinese. :) I have learnt (and I'mstill learning) a lot of Asian languages (Japanese, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu) and it is true that they have similar inherent patterns that "simplify" the transfer process to mathematical "thinking" and "computations". I speak French as a native language and French is more mathematical (17= 10+7, 76 = 60+16, 80 = 4*20, 95 = 4*20+15) compared to English too, but nowhere near as mathematical as the Asian languages I've learnt afterwards... Nice video!

[@artist172]

XD he's actually right. for some reason when i was learning japanese which has the same system as chinese math clicked better and I was getting better grades in classes that involved numbers.

[@yatoxic1213]

This is more of Chinese being more conservative, as opposed to English. A quick note when you referenced eleven and twelve. Both mean one left and two left respectively. From there, they go on to three+ten (thirteen), four+ten (fourteen. Dutch actually makes it more obvious, it has the same problem with eleven (elf) and twelve (twaalf). It's exactly like English up to twenty (twintig), -ig meaning a multitude of 10 (when talking about numbers, you can guesse what twin- means), but we use een+en+twintig (eenentwintig), basically meaning one and twenty. This is akin to German and maybe other Germanic languages as well. It follows this (kind of) rule up until 99 (negen+en+negentig, negenennegentig), where 100 is honderd (hundred) and one hundred and one/101 is also (een, can be used, but not advisable since it isn't needed) honderdeneen (honderd+en+een). Just to point out your first argument.

[@123100ozzy]

the way you format reality can completely change the way you understand reality.

[@Botkilla2K12]

And in 9 minutes I learned 3 new concepts about numbers in Chinese! Thank you Jerry good video! Wrapping my head around the units of 10,000 (萬) will take some getting used to. Luckily extremely large numbers don't come up very often in every day conversations (except for the one time talking about the need for 性交的教育 with a chinese person).

[@JerryLiuYT]

Yeah, the Wan is so unique to Chinese and its inspired Japanese language.

[@Botkilla2K12]

+Jerry Liu (刘悦) Indeed. Another thing I just thought of (correct me if I'm wrong) is how insanely easy ordinal numbers are in Chinese. IIRC they're literally just 第. Even as a native English speaker I wish they could be that simple in English.

[@JerryLiuYT]

Botkilla2K12 YES. I totally forgot about that. Very true. Whereas in English, it's first, second, third etc. Chinese is just 第一，第二 etc. Just put the "Di" character in front of the number. So much easier! For the longest time, I couldn't even spell "fourth" in English :)

[@Botkilla2K12]

Jerry Liu Hey man practice makes perfect :)

[@JerryLiuYT]

Botkilla2K12 Yeah :) My dad still can't spell "thousand." \

[@scottsanett]

It's not just good for math. It's good for the periodic table and compounds that have crazy names like triglyceride in English.

[@Ibian666]

This is interesting. Thank you. Greetings from Denmark.

[@meilakanga8572]

Amazing

[@lkumiksm]

That means it would be easier for Spanish speakers to change they way we spell our numbers, which wouldn’t be that hard in comparison to English. I mean, we are half way there. For instance: “Once” should spell “Dieziuno” or “dieciuno” Doce - diezidos or diecidos Trece - diezitres or diecitres Catorce - diezicuatro or diecicuatro Quince - diezicinco or diecicinco From here the next five could either keep the actual spelling or change the “C” for a “Z”, like the examples aforementioned. Dieciséis or dieziseis Diecisiete or diezisiete Dieciocho or dieziocho Diecinueve or diezinueve Veinte (twenty) becomes: Dosdiez Dosdieziuno or dosdieciuno Dosdiezitres or dosdiecitres Dosdiezicuatro or dosdiecicuatro Dosdiezicinco or dosdiecicinco ... And the same goes for the rest of the tens... Tresdiez Cuatrodiez Cincodiez Seisdiez Sietediez Ochodiez Nuevediez And the hundreds, thousands and millions become: Uncien Unmil Unmillón And son... Bigger numbers would become something like this: 589 = cincocien ochodiezinueve 2021= dosmil dosdieziuno 58,376 = cincodieziochomil trescien sietedieziseis 683,145 = seiscienochodiezitresmil uncien cuatrodiezicinco 4,237,816 = cuatromillon doscientresdiezisietemil ochociendieziseis It seems a little bit confusing at first sight, but I think this way follows the Chinese logic. It’s just matter of getting used to it, I guess.

[@NesmaTAG]

Thanks for the video

[@someone-ou3ht]

In BANGLA also it's the same for multiplications and it's a song in my head I will never forget my time table and i4ve memorised it in 3rd grade when I was 7

[@robertwilsoniii2048]

The only thing is there are less specifiers so being specific is harder in Chinese which affects theory negatively, but makes applications faster.

[@Lycosa]

All right :) cool stuff. I was never very good at mathematics, I'm not good at math. I can do very basic stuff like middle school high school math but not more than that. And even those just basic level and not fluently. I know 5x5 is 25. I know 15+80 is 95.

[@JerryLiuYT]

Here's a little trick for you. Any two digit number times 11 is very easy to do in your head. You take the number AB, write A in the biggest digit, add A and B to make the middle digit, and then write B in the ones digit. So for example, 35 X 11 is 385 or 87 X 11 is 957, etc.

[@johncooper8040]

Really useful, thanks :-D

[@tinkeringtim7999]

Nailed it. Language is super important. I think much of Europe still hasn't come to terms with the fact that number theory is essentially analysis of Chinese language.

[@GeoT91]

As a CBC, looking back I did memorize the multiplication table in Chinese because it was easier to recite, thereby memorize because there's fewer words and far fewer syllables. ie seven times seven equals forty nine is 10 syllables, in Chinese it's only 5 where a (character=1 syllable). Plus when memorizing I would further reduce it to just four syllables because I can drop the character ten in the word forty nine(four, ten, nine) to just four nine, two characters/syllables. Unfortunately for me I did end up learning fractions painfully by understanding what it physically was in English. Later when I learned what fractions were in Chinese, it made a lot of sense to me. I think it would've been easier to learn fractions from the get go in Chinese as the language makes it more intuitive. I'm not so sure about the other two. I suppose your idea of numbers after ten make sense but if I recall correctly, it never really fazed me personally. If anything learning the numbers in french was a bit more natural to me from knowing Chinese. I disagree on the ten thousand part, I find English easier but then again Chinese is kinda my second language. It should be noted (though obvious) is that these things only make math easier at the beginning in elementary school.

[@michellemusik9716]

How do resource this type of math language. Im homeschooling my hyperlexic 4 year old grandson and i know he would excel at this?

[@mamoako1521]

8:44 inherenlty define anything like math topics (it doesn't just have to be math, be creative. For ex. saying words that explains a concept even if its not grammatically correct in english) explaning it. (out of 4 things I take one instead of one fourth) this fraction from the bottom up as I did before (4/16) Write the Answer Below

[@johnchristian5027]

Wow so interesting! i wonder if there are other languages which make understanding math easier.

[@ispinozist7941]

This is brilliant!!

[@nicovalenzuela4044]

Now i know what other language to teach my future children.

[@babyfacekillah1323]

That’s pretty cool. I never knew the math lingo or jargon because I just saw it as completely unnecessary. As a result, I didn’t have an extensive math vocabulary. I just did it mentally like 4 and 7 is 28, and instinctively it was multiplication. My dad was an effective teacher in math to me at a young age because we would constantly practice multiplication, division, addition, or subtraction every day. He was tough of course like all asian parents, but he trained me to be a math assassin and I killed my competition when we played this game called “Around-the-World”. It was basically math flash cards.

[@simoneverodimarrow]

Thank you 🙏

[@beyondheartmindsoul3443]

Holy shit! Now I finally realized that I am not dumb. I applied what you said in video and it works!!!!! IQ is bullshit. I think I gained 20 points. Thank YOU! Maybe Learning Asian language such as chinese and japanese may make an entrepenuer soon!

[@boredomalert3625]

Not when your exam questions are in English and your parents explain everything in chinese

[@lifescience2050]

awesome! never realized its power before. been taking it for granted.

[@gergarruto]

Hi! I'm doing a little research for an exam in History of Mathematics I'm taking this semester and the theme I'm researching is the work of translating Euclid's Elements of Geometry into Chinese by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci. It's said that it was very hard to translate because at that time there wasn't a standard way of translating Deductive Argumentation(you know, axioms, inference rules, theorems) so it was needed to introduce knew terminology. Do you know something regarding this matter? Even where could I find more information about the deductive aspect of Mathematics in the Chinese language. Thank you.

[@rizzwan-42069]

if someone used this ideas and make a conlang using base 12 then math for them would be even easier although you would struggle to translate the numbers back to base 10 or maybe there's a trick to it

[@starrealm2621]

This video is the pivotal point of everything time now lmao

[@wbx9126]

the Romans inherited their language from the Greek which inherited theirs from the Phoenicians, which inherited their language from the Babylonians. The Babylonians used base 12 which is why all western languages have weird 11s and 12s

[@peterfireflylund]

Nope. Every single sentence you wrote is wrong.

[@wbx9126]

Peter Lund every word in your sentence sounds salty

[@siscutiepie6006]

Yup there's one boy in my class from China they say he's so good at math.

[@EastBurningRed]

i prefer the english way of stating fractions since it’s the natural way of writing them down

[@timamalsinaidi5713]

This is awesome !

[@JerryLiuYT]

+tamam alsinide thanks!

[@submerse9993]

Fascinating!

[@davidbrainerd1520]

I've noticed in some English Bible translations, there is a unit for 10k: myriad. Revelation 5:11 RSV "numbering myriads of myriads" vs KJV "and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand" ... Your video made me think to look it up, and guess what the wikipedia on it says? "A myriad (from Ancient Greek μυριάς, myrias) is technically the number ten thousand; in that sense, the term is used almost exclusively in translations from Greek, Latin, or Chinese" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad

[@JerryLiuYT]

Very cool! Thanks for your comment. I'll pin it!

[@SirCutRy]

Cujo19760210 I don't think that was implied.

[@madeleinehoward-frank1025]

This is AMAZING!