1130周五Ask树华：美国人是怎么学数学的呢？

微信：JoshShuhua

Hugh

I wonder how many Americans go abroad every year.

我好奇每年有多少个美国人出国。

That’s an interesting question, and I think I’ve talked about it before, but whatever! Let’s talk about it again.

那个问题很有趣。我好像感觉我聊过这个问题，但是无所谓啦！我们再说一下吧。

So there’s a great website, travel [dot] trade [dot] gov, that has all kinds of information about American tourism. For example, I just went there and found information about Americans traveling abroad in 2017 (I didn’t look at 2018 because this year isn’t finished yet).

那么有一个不错的网站，travel点trade点gov,上面有各种关于美国游客的信息。比如说，我刚去那找了一些关于2017美国游客（我没查2018年的，因为今年还没有结束）。

I saw that Americans went abroad 87,703,442 times last year. That number seemed really high to me, since the population of the USA last year was only 327 million, so 87 million is over a quarter of all Americans. But then I thought about it and realized that a lot of those 87 million “times” were probably the same person, like me. I think I left the USA at least twice last year.

我发现去年美国人出国了87,703,442次。我当时觉得那个数字非常高，因为去年美国人口才是3.27亿，所以877万就已经四分之一以上了。可是我又想了一想，发现那个877万次应该包括同一个人多次出境，比如说我。我去年应该最少出了两次国。

So then I went to find out how many Americans had passports, and that was really interesting information. In 1990, only 4 percent of Americans had passports. That means that only 4 percent of Americans could even leave the country, which is amazing. But by 1997 that became 15%, by 2007 it was 27%, and now it’s 42%.

所以我以后去搜搜多少美国人有护照。这个信息也很有趣。1990年，才4%的美国人有了护照。那就是说4%的美国人才能出国，不可思议！可是1997年那个百分比已经涨到17%，到了2007年就是27%，然后现在就大概是42%。

That’s a huge change, but Americans are still behind other Western countries in terms of passports. 66% of Canadians have one, and almost 76% of British people do. So Americans do love to travel, but that’s kind of a recent development.

那个改变还挺大的，但是美国人还是没有其他西方国家的比例高。66%的加拿大人有护照，和接近76%的英国人有。所以美国人真的喜欢出国旅游，但是这是一个最近才出现的情况。

Horace

Can you get the answer of 7 multiplied by 8 in less than 1 second? How do Americans learn math? Thanks a lot.

你可以一秒钟以内回答7乘8吗？美国人是怎么学数学呢？多谢了。

Hi, Horace! The answer is no, I can’t do it in 1 second. But I can do it in 2 or 3 seconds. That’s because Americans don’t focus so much on memorizing multiplication tables乘法表。They focus more on learning methods to figure out the answer to different questions.

哈喽！答案是：不，我不会1秒钟以内回答，但是我可以2-3秒钟内回答。那是因为美国人不太看重背乘法表，还是更看重学习如何找到不同问题的解决方法。

That’s not to say we don’t ever look at multiplication tables. I remember memorizing them in primary school, but after that, nobody ever asked us about it or expected us to remember immediately what 7 times 8 is. Instead, we rely on easy ways to find the answer quickly, even if we forget the multiplication tables. For example, 8 times 5 is easy to remember, because it’s a round number, 40. 7 minus 5 is 2, so you need two more eights to know the answer to 7 times 8. Fortunately, 2 times 8 is also easy to remember: 16. So, 40+16=56, which is the answer to 7 times 8.

这不是说我们从不背乘法表。我记得小学的时候背过，但是那时候以后，没有人会管我们这件事，也不会让我们那么快就想起7乘8是什么。我们还是学习不同方法让我们在忘记乘法表的情况下还是能够快速找到答案。比如说，8乘5很好记，因为他是一个10倍数，40。然后7减5等于2，所以还需要加2个8才到了7乘8。好在2乘8也好记，就是16。所以40+16=56，就是7乘8的答案。

Now, to me, that kind of math is very easy, but you might think it sounds complicated and hard. That’s OK – lots of older Americans agree with you, because older Americans did a lot more memorization when they were in school. But these days, schools focus less on memorization and more on teaching students how to find out the answer to the problem.

那么对我来说那个方法非常容易，但是一看就可能会觉得很复杂、很难。那也OK –很多老美国人跟你同意，以为美国以前也是看重那种背乘法表的方法。可是现在，美国的学校少点玩背背背，更多是培训学生找办法回答各种不同的问题。

That way, when they see a really complicated looking problem in the future, they won’t say, “I can’t do that, because I haven’t memorized the method.” Instead, they will say, “Hey, maybe I can find out a way to do that!”

那样的话，学生遇到一个看起来特备复杂的问题的时候，就不会说“这个我没学过，所以做不了”，还是会说，“嘿，我看看能否找办法解决这个问题！”

Andy

When Chinese people come across something that’s very surprising or out of their expectation, they will say, “Oh!” “Ya!” “Ah!” So, just one syllable. But when Americans come across such a situation they will say, “Oops!” So, still one syllable, but more consonants. I mean, it’s easier to say as less (little) as possible, so why (do) Americans say “oops” in such situations?

中国人发现一个特别惊讶或者不可思议的事情，他们会说，哦！呀！啊！所以，就一个音节。可是美国人发现这种情况的时候，他们会说Oops!还是一个音节，但是子音更多一点。我的意思是，简单一点的说法更上口，所以为什么美国人会说Oops呢？

哎呀！哎呦妈呀！我勒个去！什么鬼！Andy, not everything that Chinese people say when they’re surprised is only one syllable. You’re right that shorter things are easier, but that doesn’t mean easier is always better. Sometimes you use a longer phrase to express yourself more clearly or more strongly.

哎呀！哎呦妈呀！我勒个去！什么鬼！Andy，中国人惊讶时的说法并不都是单音节的。你说得对，短一点也是容易一点，可是那也不是说越容易越好。有时候一个长一点的说法可以更清楚地、有力地表达自己。

As for Americans, we don’t say “oops” when we’re surprised. We say “oops” when we make a mistake. For example, if you drop something, you can quickly say, “Oops!” Or if you accidentally delete a very important file on your computer, you can slowly say, “Oooops!”

关于美国人，我们说oops不是在惊讶的时候，而是在犯错误的时候。比如说，如果掉了一个东西，就可以快速说Oops!或者如果无意中删除了一个很重要的文件的话，可以慢慢说ooooops!

But if something happens to us in a very surprising way, we can also say, “Whoa!” “What?” “Aah!” “Ugh!” So we also have all kinds of one-syllable, easy-to-say exclamations.

可是，如果真的遇到个很惊讶的情况，我们也可以说，喔！瓦特？啊！额！所以我们也有那种单音乐、容易上口的感叹词。

One thing I’ve learned is that people everywhere are basically the same. We all get surprised, excited, and scared sometimes, and the way we express that is usually very similar. I am sure that every language in the world has a short way to say “Ah!” as well as a longer way to say “我勒个去!”

我发现的情况之一就是全球的人类都差不多。我们都会惊讶、兴奋、或者害怕，而且我们表达方法也很相似。我相信世界上每门语言都有很短的啊！说法，也有长一点的我累个去！说法。