In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell devotes a whole section to analyzing why Asian students systematically do better in math than their Western counterparts. In short, the answer is “rice paddies”, for the long answer, keep reading.
Are they really better?
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are given every 4 years to dozens of 4th and 8th grades around the world. Below are the top 5 countries from the last three TIMSS.
| Rank | 1999 | 2003 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | Singapore | Taiwan |
| 2 | South Korea | Taiwan | South Korea |
| 3 | Taiwan | South Korea | Singapore |
| 4 | Hong Kong | Hong Kong | Hong Kong |
| 5 | Japan | Japan | Japan |
Still not convinced? A 2007 BBC news story contrasted two unversity entrance exam questions, one from a British test, the other from a Chinese test. Can you guess which one is which? (I know it says which is which, but pretend like you don’t see it)
But why?
There’s a bit of a debate out there as to why exactly. David Chen on his blog attributes it to Asian parents who are more likely to discipline their kids than Western parents, curricula highly focused on math and science achievement, and the schools that are “oppressive, draconian environments”. Another blogger partly attributes it to the Chinese language, where numbers are more logically synthesised than in English and many other Western languages, for example, French. Gladwell also recognizes this explanation but, as the blogger, believes that the amount of work is the key factor involved in their mathematical success.
Gladwell’s reasons
In Outliers, Gladwell acknowledges that linguistic advantage may help Asians do better in math but he considers the amount of effort and time they contribute to schoolwork is a far more significant factor. Asians spend more time in school daily and go to school more days in the year than most Westerners. Their curriculum also places greater focus on math.
Gladwell attributes this diligence to cultural tradition while Western’s approach to education is as well. It appears that agrarian cultivation traditions have a great impact on educational cultivation. In the West, crops like wheat require the land to lay fallow for sometime during the year in order to regenerate. Asia, on the other hand, is a rice economic and rice paddies can be tended to all year round (the more it produces the more fertile it becomes, the opposite of Western crop lands). In many ways it’s a precise science and the slightest slip up can cost you. Overall, there seems to be a direct correlation between effort and output with rice paddies. In Western crops, on the other hand, you are far more dependent on rain and the weather.
As a result, Asians treat their minds as rice paddies, constantly cultivating and harvesting. Westerners treat it as cropland that needs to rest for long periods of time, hence we have long summer vacations.
Proverbs
Gladwell cites a Chinese proverb that illustrates his point about work ethic in Asia,
“No one who can rise before dawn three hundred and sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.”
He also cites a Russian proverb that illustrates the opposite (I cannot find it at the moment so please post it as a comment if you know it). But, it you look around the internet for Russian proverbs, you’ll find both lazy ones and diligent ones. But, can you find Chinese proverbs that advocate laziness? (I skimmed only a little but didn’t find anything).
