| This is accurate. I was educated in a bilingual environment since young and remember strings of numbers (credit card numbers, telephone numbers, identity cards) much easier in Mandarin than in English. 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) --- 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 |