Students in China who learn Chinese have to memorize 40,000 symbols or characters in the Chinese language before there are 14 years old. This takes a tremendous amount of studying and personal effort. Many students in the United States did not like math because they have to memorize symbols and that confuses them.

Perhaps this is because the English language only has 26 letters and very few characters to memorize. Chinese students on the other hand are conditioned to memorizing many characters and symbols and this is very easy for them. When it comes to memorizing mathematical symbols the Chinese students have no problem with this and therefore the equations look like simple math and arithmetic.

Do you believe that the way the kids are taught in school to learn symbols in China has something to do with their ability and genius in mathematics yes or no? I believe it does and I also believe that this gives the Chinese students a tremendous advantage in mathematics over the English speaking language countries. Does this mean we should teach American kids Chinese?