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Chinese Characters Help Improve IQ

Chinese characters may be the reason why local children aged between six and 12 display a higher IQ1 than their peers2 in Britain, Germany and Australia.

The pictographic nature of the Chinese writing system helps to stimulate the thinking faculty of children. Their intelligence develops better while they learn the characters.
This was disclosed by Dr Zeng Zeng, assistant professor3 of psychology at NUS, in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao as was reported.

I am a retired Chinese-language teacher from Malaysia. From my experiences, I have long noticed that Chinese-medium-educated students always excel in mathematics as compared with those taught in other languages. The secret lies in the Chinese characters. The words for numerals are all monosyllabic4 in Chinese. In contrast, their equivalents in Malay have two or three syllables, like sa -tu, du-a, ti-ga, em-pat, li-ma, e-nam, tu-juh, lapan, sem-bi-lan, se -pu-luh. It takes a longer time to pronounce these words. Their English equivalents — one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, hundred, thousand, million — include multi-syllabic words, too.

The difference between them is most striking when it comes to memorising the multiplication table . Children easily find that it is in the Chinese language that they can do the job fastest.
Children taught in Chinese find it easier to learn numerals and can do their calculations much faster.
This has been repeatedly borne out by reports on Chinese-medium-educated students winning prizes in International Mathematics Olympiads.

Mathematics has a lot to do with IQ tests, as it is well proven that children good at numbers tend to have a stronger reasoning faculty. So, I would like to call on Chinese parents to treasure the language of our ancestors. Teach the children Chinese so that they can think in the language. Keep their cutting edge in mathematics with the aid of Chinese characters, and this will improve their IQ.

练习题：

Ⅰ. Select one which bears the same meaning with underlined words:

1. Why local children aged between 6 and 12 display a higher IQ?

A. native; show B. naive; demonstrate

2. Chinese writing system helps to stimulate the thinking faculty of children.

A. encourage; power B. discourage; face

3. I would like to call on Chinese parents to treasure the language of our ancestors.

A. cherish; forefathers B. treat; antiquities

Ⅱ. Question:

Which fact can prove that students taught in Chinese having high IQ?

参考答案

Ⅰ. 1. A 2 . A 3. A

Ⅱ. Chinese-medium-educated students won prizes in International Mathematics Olympiads.

参考译文

学汉字有助提高智商

学习汉字可能是我国6 岁至12 岁孩童的智商比英国、德国和澳大利亚孩童高的原因。汉字的象形特性有助于激发孩童的思考能力。学习汉字无形中提高了孩子们的智商。上述这些话是新加坡国立大学心理学助理教授曾增博士接受《联合早报》采访时所说的。

我是一位早期在马来西亚从事汉语教学的退休教师, 在教学中早就注意到以汉语为教育媒介的学生在数学领域中一直领先于以其他语言为教育媒介的学生。其原因在于: 汉语是以单音节语素为主, 一字一音节。反观马来语: sa-tu、du -a、ti-ga、em -pat、li-ma、e-nam 、tujuh、la-pan、sem-bi-lan 、se-pu -luh 等音节都比汉语长, 念起来都比汉语费时多了。又如英语one, two, three, four, five, six, seven , eight, nine, ten, hundred, thousand , million 等, 其中也有好些是语音较长的文字。

当学童在学习背诵乘法表时最能发觉以汉语背诵是各种语言中最快捷的。所以数目字在以汉语为启蒙教育的孩童中显得比较简单, 在运算过程中也就显得简易而快捷多了。

这些事实可以从报上屡见不鲜的国际奥林匹克数学比赛中来自汉语源流的学生所获得的荣誉加以证明。

智商测验很大程度上与数学扯上关系, 因为数学好的学童推理能力自然就强, 这是铁一般的事实。因此, 笔者在此大力呼吁华裔家长珍惜祖先创造的单音节优秀语言, 在家中先教导孩子们学会汉语, 让孩子们能先用汉语去思考问题, 保留这种对数学的优势, 提高孩子们的智商。

阅读解释

1. IQ 即intelligence quotient ( 智商, 智力商数) , 是心理学家进行智力测验的术语。EQ 即 emotional quotient ( 情) , 是指商人在不同境遇中的情感适应商数, 特别指在逆境中求生存求发展的心理动能。

2. peer n. ①〔英国〕贵族。②有爵位的贵族, 其中包括: 公爵( duke) 、侯爵( marquis) 、伯爵( earl) 、子爵( viscount) 、男爵( baron) , 如: peers of Scotland /Ireland ( 苏格兰/ 爱尔兰贵族) ; a peer of the blood royal ( 英国皇族上院议员) ; peers of the realm[ the United Kingdom]( 英国可以入上院的贵族) ; the House of Peers ( 英国贵族院, 上议院) ③ 同辈, 同事, 伙伴, 同等的人, 同等地位的公民, 如: You will not easily find his peers. ( 他是一个无与伦比的人物。) without peer ( 无比的, 无可匹敌的) 。

3. 助理教授。一些国家在副教授( associate professor) 和讲师( lecturer) 之间设立的一种职称或者职位, 比如: 在美国, 博士毕业从教的人一般可以在一年甚至更短的时间内得到这个头衔。

4. monosyllabic adj. 单音节的。mono-是一个前缀, 表示“ 单, 一”, 如: monologue ( 独白) ;monotonous ( 单调的) ; monopoly ( 垄断) 。