Xref: utzoo alt.hypertext:866 comp.graphics:17397
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!batcomputer!munnari.oz.au!manuel!anucsd!csis!ken
From: ken@csis.dit.csiro.au (Ken Yap)
Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Images vs. Text
Message-ID: <1991Apr21.072316.19144@csis.dit.csiro.au>
Date: 21 Apr 91 07:23:16 GMT
References: <1991Apr2.180348.19733@smsc.sony.com> <1991Apr02.235121.17834@convex.com> <35027@athertn.Atherton.COM>
Organization: CSIRO Division of Information Technology
Lines: 31

>> 2) Is the concept of a variable really more difficult to users of ideographic
>> language users?  How are other mathematical uses of variables taught?
>> Does mathematical literacy negate this alleged deficit?
>
>...
>
>That is exactly the author's point--that iconic languages don't have
>letters, so variables can't be represented. The author's suggestion is
>that algebraic notation is a second language, but a second language more
>akin to Indo-European languages, and thus easier for Indo-Europeans to
>master.  But is this true?  Does the average asian-language speaker
>have more difficulty learning symbolic algebra?  What evidence supports
>or refutes the authors' suggestions

While Chinese and some other Asian languages are ideographic, in
practice this has no bearing on the discussion. Childrens' magazines in
Chinese often have running features illustrating the evolution of
various characters from the picture of the object represented, e.g. the
character for door evolved from a drawing of the gates, etc. The
average Chinese reader is aware of the pictoral origins of Chinese, but
when Chinese is used in everyday life, it is just as symbolic as a
Western language, because civilization relies a lot on abstraction. The
phrase for "square root", for example, is literally "square root".  It
was a Westerner who pointed out to me that the Chinese phrase for
"immediately" is literally "on horse". I had been making verbal
exchanges with that token all my life without stopping to think about
its origins, just like the average Frenchman doesn't stop to analyse
"tout suite".  So I would not expect any cultural dis/advantage for
handling symbols.

Ideographic languages may be faster to read, I don't know.