Asian students of Chinese origin are known to learn Math and Chinese better than non-Asians. Students from Asian countries such as Singapore, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong usually top international surveys on mathematics skills.
Asian Math And Chinese Learning
One of the main reasons for the excellent math performance of Asian students is their ability to commit what they learn into memory. Asian languages with Chinese origin require one to learn by memory. The Chinese writing system does not use an alphabet and one can only learn the Chinese language by first committing to memory character-by-character. Similarly, math learning requires students to commit to memory from young, starting from the addition and multiplication table. There are lots of memorizing all the way to algebra, geometry, trigonometry and calculus.
Throughout their learning years, Asians are able to memorize math concepts as effortlessly as they memorize the characters in their native language. Committing to memory is the way of life for Asians since the day there were taught their mother tongue.
Good Memory For Math And Chinese
Among non-Chinese civilizations, ancient mathematicians also developed, taught and practiced simple fast mental math skills that are widely used today. Ancient Indian Vedas around 1500-900 BC contained a good record of theses, with dissertations on mathematics authored by the Vedic mathematicians of the time.
Today, Vedic Math is known as one of the World’s Fastest Mental Math! Yet it takes only a few days to learn these simple ways and put these techniques to work quickly.
Math And Chinese Tutoring
In recent years, more young Asians are finding it hard to learn mother-tongue of Chinese origin. Not surprisingly they too find it hard to cope with math. Many parents are engaging tutors to help improve their children math and Chinese capability. However, many of these parents, and their children, are unaware of what they should get out of the tutoring process.
In math tutoring, basic knowledge becomes consolidated in long-term memory and math facts and procedures gradually become automatic. It is exactly this automatism that “frees up” the processing load on the brain so it can dedicate more mental energy to the higher-order tasks of reasoning and complex problem solving.
Academic Chinese
In some countries Chinese as an academic subject has undergone great modifications for students of different learning ability and interest. For example, Singapore schools offer variations of Chinese subjects known as Higher Chinese, IB Chinese, IP Chinese and several more variations.
Whether Math or Chinese, a good tutor must be able to use creative methods to help students develop strong mental skills. In Chinese tutoring, a student must first be able to memorize as many Chinese characters as possible.
Academic Math
In the same manner, Math as an academic subject has also undergone significant changes for students of different mathematical skills. In the case of Singapore, schools are offering Elementary Math, Additional Math, Normal Academic Math, IB Math, IP math and several more variations.
To find good Math and Chinese tutors, the number 1 choice is through recommendations and referrals. Ask family members, relatives and friends for recommendations of tutors they’ve used or considered using. Some schools and teachers also offer good referral on tutors.
Finding Good Math And Chinese Tutor
If you hear of good personal experiences of using a particular tutor, chances are good that you will find the same tutor providing you with good experience as well.
There are key evaluation criteria to indicate whether you have found a good Math and Chinese tutor. A tutor who asks questions to involve the students in the session is able to engage the students and keep their mind active and stimulate mental skills. A skillful tutor is also able to motivate students to speak up in response to questions after a couple of tutoring sessions. The tutor adapts to the student learning style and make learning experiences rich and meaningful. Ultimately, a good tutor encourages students to be independent by showing them how to recognize certain concept and apply the skills.