Math in English!

LVN   Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:19 am GMT
It's an interesting topic for everyone who love maths. Many students in the world (except country use English) are very good at maths but they can not do the problem in english althought It's very easy. May be they can understand the thesis but they can not solve the problem. So would you mind to share me experiences, tips on how to solve a math problem? ( you can give an example about Math problem and then show the key. Ofcourse it's easy for the beginner)
Thank you very much!
Ps: In my text, I know there're lots of mistakes and please point them out to me!
Thank you very much!
Johnathan Mark   Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:21 am GMT
O.K.--I guess you might say I love math, as it is my undergraduate major, but I am not quite sure what you are looking for here. There are plenty of places to find math problems online.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=math+problems&btnG=Google+Search

If this isn't what you're looking for, what do you want?
Uriel   Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:54 am GMT
<<Many students in the world (except country use English) are very good at maths but they can not do the problem in english althought It's very easy.>>

I never had any problem doing math in English. What ARE you talking about?
Guest   Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:31 pm GMT
<<Ps: In my text, I know there're lots of mistakes and please point them out to me! >>
Since you specifically asked for it:

"This is an interesting topic for everyone who loves maths. Many students all over the world (except those from English-speaking countries) are very good at maths but they sometimes cannot solve even easy problems when they are in English. They may understand the thesis, but they cannot solve the problem. So would you mind sharing your experiences with me, as well as tips on how to solve maths problems? You can give an example of a maths problem and then show the key. Of course it's easy for the beginner."

Note that maths is used mainly in British English, whereas math is used in NAE.

As for the content of your question, it is rather fuzzy. I imagine that any difficulty non-native speakers may have with mathematics lies in the language aspect, but this is no different from non-native speakers studying Biology or Chemistry in English.
Tiffany   Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:44 pm GMT
The beauty of math is that it is the same in many languages. 2 + 2 = 4 in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc...

Now perhaps if you are talking about word problems...
greg   Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:22 pm GMT
Tiffany : « The beauty of math is that it is the same in many languages. 2 + 2 = 4 in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, etc... »

Pas tout à fait. Par exemple *<4.25> ne veut rien dire en français car on utilise la virgule : <4,25>.
Uriel   Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:01 am GMT
If two cars leave LA and Chicago at the same time, the first getting 30 miles to the gallon and the other getting 27.5 miles to the gallon, and gas costs an average of $2.93/gal, how much money will the driver of Car A have spent by the time they meet in Denver, and how many times will Car B's driver have stopped to take a leak on the side of the road? Show all work.
Jessica   Fri Jul 28, 2006 1:17 pm GMT
Hi,

I guess I know what you were trying to say, LVN.

There are many students in China, Japan, Korea who are really good at math and always get the first prize in the International Math Competetions.

But when they go abroad and have to take the math texts in English, they become so bad at it. So they are wondering, I'm a good student in math, and I can understand what the math problem is trying to ask me, why can't I solve it?

I guess the problem is, the language. In non-English-speaking countries, some people, I don't know if I can use the word "alot", they are good at English. They can get really good grades in English texts. But they don't even know how to speak! That's what we call"dumb English".

I know some of the students, they work till midnight on the English grammar, and it really works! They can get really high marks in English, trust me!! But they don't even know how to pronounce a word they know. One of my American friend told me, he had a student who doesn't even know how to say Hello!!

In my opinion, being excellent in English isn't only about getting good grades. It is also about knowing how to communicate. I think when you can really "think" in English, you can say you've really learnt English.

Understanding the math problem in English and sloving it are two different things for the non-English-speaking students. They are used to solving math problems in their own language and when they solve their math problem, they think in their own language. So that's why when it comes to think in English, they don't even know how to do it even it's a very easy problem. :)

I hope that's the answer you want, LVN!

*Jessica*