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One reason why Chinese have less difficulty remembering and using these numbers than the western fellows might be the difference in pronunciation. In Chinese, all single digit number has the same structure: a consonant plus a vowel. For example, 7, in Chinese is pronounced as [ch-i:], while in English is pronounced as [ˈsɛvən]. Also, every digit takes the same time to pronounce. For example, a string "123456" is [yi:, er, san, si:, wu, liu]. That, in my experience, makes a long string of number easier to read out. And easier to read out means easier to memorize. A side node: In China every kids in their elementary school if not kindergarten can recite the "table of multiplication". That is, they can remember the answer from 1 * 1 to 9 * 9. I doubt how many westerners can do so, due to the language difference. Edit: The asterisk symbol is driving me nut. |
For example, this is a small part of the multiplication table:
English:
six times five equals thirty-five
six times six equals thirty-six
six times seven equals fourty-three
six times eight equals fourty-eight
vs
六五 三十五 (liu wu, san shi wu)
六六 三十六 (liu liu, san shi liu)
六七 四十二 (liu qi, si shi er)
六八 五十六 (liu ba, wu shi liu)
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one times one equals one
two times two equals four
three times three equals nine
four times four equals sixteen
five times five equals twenty-five
vs
一一 得一 (yi yi, de yi) (de == "gets")
二二 得四 (er er, de si)
三三 得九 (san san, de jiu)
四四 十六 (si si, shi liu)
五五 二十五 (wu wu, er shi wu)
I left out the tones for simplicity.
After a while, the mandarin multiplication table becomes like a poem to recite, while the English counterpart doesn't quite have the same ring to it