Comments on: Doing Fractions “In Chinese” ?!

By: Rebecca Zook - Math Tutoring Online » Confused about fractions? Visualize brownies, not pizzas

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:08:26 +0000

[...] Posts: Doing fractions “In Chinese”?! The best algebra book in the world? Gallon man to the rescue! Five fun ways to help your kids learn [...]

By: Rebecca Zook

Rebecca Zook — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:29:44 +0000

Hao Ye, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! It’s great to “meet” you. I am really interested in finding ways to explain the intuitive concepts that aren’t typically explained. I’d love to hear more of your thoughts on the standard multiplication algorithm and place value!

By: Hao Ye

Hao Ye — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:51:37 +0000

I think this is an excellent example of how some teachers teach math as though it is a separate language with its own rules, when many of the concepts have intuitive definitions that aren’t typically explained. In addition to your example with fractions, why the standard multiplication algorithm works and what it has to do with place value is probably another big thing that isn’t emphasized as much as it should be.

By: Rebecca Zook

Rebecca Zook — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:58:36 +0000

Thank you for being intrigued! I appreciate you pointing out that the Gladwell link isn’t the whole chapter. I didn’t realize it was an excerpt. I’ll fix that in the post. (And I think you would really love his book Outliers if you want to read the whole thing.)

By: Rebecca Zook

Rebecca Zook — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:51:22 +0000

Thanks for your comment! That’s really interesting. I’ve worked with a couple students who learned math in a second language, but it just seemed to make them super-confused. (Which made me question my plan, if I ever have kids, to raise them multilingual.) It sounds like if you went to a Chinese school that maybe you grew up speaking both Chinese and English? Anyway, I heartily support your efforts to catch up with your math skills!

By: QueerSilver

QueerSilver — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:05:18 +0000

I learned math in both Chinese and English since I went to a Chinese school. We had a regular math class and we have a Chinese math class. Concepts are all similar but I do find that there is a disconnect and I guess it confused me a lot so I can’t say I’m in any way better at math but reading this re-sparked my interest in re-learning Chinese math for what it is. Who knows? Maybe now that I could make sense of more things, I could actually catch up with my math skills.

By: Sue VanHattum

Sue VanHattum — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:01:40 +0000

Thanks for intriguing me, as usual! Unfortunately, it looks like that Gladwell link isn’t the whole chapter, just the first page of it.