Funny that in Chinese, I literally have always known it as 阿拉伯數字 (Arabic Numerals).
I’m starting to realize more and more how much the Chinese Language is just simply better at teaching concepts.
Disclaimer, I am ethnic Chinese, but I’m totally not biased at all :D
Edit:
Also, while we’re on the topic of Numerals, teach Chinese Numbers as well, its literally one syllable per character, much easier to pronounce and remember.
English has become my primary language, but I still often find myself counting in Chinese (Cantonese).
I once said “Arabic Numerals” in class (US), and my classmates thought I was trying to be racist… like… bruh… that’s literally what these nunbers are called…
They’re definitely known as Arabic numerals elsewhere too. It’s mentioned in Math class fairly early on when Roman numerals are also introduced. I’m sure that even in American schools, it’s mentioned that they’re called Arabic numerals.
Unless you mean that in Chinese there’s just no word for “numbers” and you have to use the name of the specific system?
I mean, I’ve personally never heard of the term “Arabic Numeral” being uttered in a classroom from 2nd grade all the way through Highschool in the US Schools I’ve went to. It’s just “write the numbers in words” or in “numbers/digits”.
Damn, maybe the US system is worse than I thought.
There are so many general knowledge things that aren’t necessary for survival or to do your job that the general populace seems to lack. This is one of them
Chinese/Japanese characters have kindof always led to good student outcomes in wrote memorization because of the necessity of pattern recognition. With an alphabet there’s simply less to learn, and you don’t have much context since etymology in alphabet based languages is so much more esoteric.
Also, Americans aren’t really taught much about technology from outside of the American sphere of influence. American schooling has a lot of dead zones.
Funny that in Chinese, I literally have always known it as 阿拉伯數字 (Arabic Numerals).
I’m starting to realize more and more how much the Chinese Language is just simply better at teaching concepts.
Disclaimer, I am ethnic Chinese, but I’m totally not biased at all :D
Edit:
Also, while we’re on the topic of Numerals, teach Chinese Numbers as well, its literally one syllable per character, much easier to pronounce and remember.
English has become my primary language, but I still often find myself counting in Chinese (Cantonese).
We call them Arabic numerals too but the street name is numbers. Very powerful concept
I once said “Arabic Numerals” in class (US), and my classmates thought I was trying to be racist… like… bruh… that’s literally what these nunbers are called…
So yeah… I never used that term once again.
They’re definitely known as Arabic numerals elsewhere too. It’s mentioned in Math class fairly early on when Roman numerals are also introduced. I’m sure that even in American schools, it’s mentioned that they’re called Arabic numerals.
Unless you mean that in Chinese there’s just no word for “numbers” and you have to use the name of the specific system?
I mean, I’ve personally never heard of the term “Arabic Numeral” being uttered in a classroom from 2nd grade all the way through Highschool in the US Schools I’ve went to. It’s just “write the numbers in words” or in “numbers/digits”.
Damn, maybe the US system is worse than I thought.
There are so many general knowledge things that aren’t necessary for survival or to do your job that the general populace seems to lack. This is one of them
Which is a sad indictment of the school system you attended.
Chinese/Japanese characters have kindof always led to good student outcomes in wrote memorization because of the necessity of pattern recognition. With an alphabet there’s simply less to learn, and you don’t have much context since etymology in alphabet based languages is so much more esoteric.
Also, Americans aren’t really taught much about technology from outside of the American sphere of influence. American schooling has a lot of dead zones.