I remember talking to my Spanish professor, who was from Peru, and asking her if she thought in English or in Spanish. She told me that basically, it went either way, depending on if she was in the US, or visiting Peru, with one exception; doing math. She said she couldn't do math in English, she had to translate the numbers, work with them, then translate them back.
So, that got me to wondering, are our understanding of math, and the math facts we have memorized, strongly tied to language? Is what my professor experienced typical for people who try to do math in languages other than the ones they've learned them in?
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Fame is but a slow decay.
-Theodore Tilton
I find this really interesting but have nothing useful to contribute. Kodi? Wil?
You'd think I'd know something relevant, between my interests in language, mathematics, and psychology, but the only language I know anything about is English, and I haven't read anything about mathematical cognition.
Use the PsycINFO, Luke! Then report back here. (You do have access to PsycINFO, right, Mark?)
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Change your signature once a month for optimal health, and don't forget to backslash your backslashes.
As is the case with understanding anything, mathematics is understood metaphorically by the individual, which means that its understanding is tied to the individual's most fluent language.
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for relaxing times, make it suntory time