I was out doing errands just now, and stopped in at the local Asian fruit-and-vegetable shop. I had grabbed several things that were three for a dollar, five for a dollar, etc., and the young woman behind the counter quickly summed up the total in her head. I complimented her on her calculating skill. She smiled and said, completely un-selfconsciously: “I’m Chinese — we’re good at math!”
I cannot tell you how how startlingly refreshing this was. How alive! How different from our own sickly self-abnegation!
3 Comments
Sounds a bit cocky to me, a bit of, I’m better than you. Which of course they are. Much better, whether it is a result of being conscientious, or just innately more intelligent, I don’t know. A bit of both, I suspect. One of my bookkeepers informs me that they really aren’t that clever at all. I think he is coming from a point of view, from within an inner circle of fairly good mathematicians. He comes out on top, and can explain and dissect any number of reasons why these people are “completely up themselves”. It doesn’t change the fact that, en masse, these folks have us totally outclassed. Their average is our talented. It becomes a little more complicated at the top.
I was at my local fruit shop the other day. Twice the price of the supermarket but, obviously, you’re not supposed to notice.
Avocado: three for nine dollars, one for three dollars.
If nothing else, it shows you the crazy price for everything and anything, in Australia. I think that may be about to change.
Didn’t seem cocky; it was just something she knew her people were good at.
You’re right Malcolm. These people are good, very good indeed. I have seen Chinese children at first hand, and I know that they do the maths easier than the average kid in school. It doesn’t change the fact, and maybe it’s not a fact, but it’s a belief that when you get to a certain level, things even out. It’s an individual thing, and the best person may be Chinese, or he maybe English, or he may be American. Maybe he might be a she.
No doubt at all though, that the Chinese have an aptitude. Power to them.