However, I do wonder if there might be a relationship between math skills and the language of first proficiency. It seems that since the rules of expression for mathematics is universal across cultures, but the rules of expression for language are not, maybe someone growing up speaking a germanic language (for example) may have an edge over someone speaking a romance language when it comes to mathematics.
In other words, maybe the structure of certain spoken languages may be more similar than others to the structure of mathematics - and this may give some people an edge in math over others.
I'm hoping there are some linguists or psychometricians in the group who may be able to address this.
Thanks, Adam
> [A Daniel Seligman sampler...]
>
> And on average they [Orientals (sic)] are smarter. >
That is the message
> of most of the
> studies performed by Richard Lynn of the University
> of Belfast, who
> has tracked Oriental IQs in many different parts of
> the world and
> found them usually superior to those of Caucasians.
> With the American
> IQ average normalized at 100, Japanese in Hawaii
> average 108. (Lynn's
> latest estimate for Japan itself is 110.) In
> Singapore, Lynn found
> Chinese kids averaging 110 (vs. 96 for the Malays).
> Research in Hong
> Kong in the Sixties and Seventies generally showed
> native Chinese
> youth at about the same IQ level as the British,
> although the latter
> obviously came from a select group of families.
> Arthur Jensen of the
> University of California at Berkeley, who closely
> studied children in
> San Francisco's Chinatown in the early Seventies,
> show them superior
> to white children; beginning around the third grade,
> they show
> nonverbal scores averaging an extraordinary 110.
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