介绍:
Asians are known the world over as being “good at math.” This is a stereotype perpetuated by popular culture in the West. But is there some truth to it? Yes, as it turns out. I can say that in daily life, Chinese people do more math than their American counterparts. In fact, one can even say daily life in China is an ongoing math test. Right off the top of my head, I can think of three examples, starting with shopping in China’s capital.
一直以来，西方文化中就认为亚洲人比其他国家的人更精于算数，这一说法是否合理呢？没错，事实确实如此。可以这么说，与美国不同，中国人在日常生活中会经常跟数字打交道。中国人每天的生活就像在解答一道道的数学题，我当下就可以想到三个例子，先拿在北京购物来说吧。
When you walk into any department store in Beijing, chances are there is a sale going on. You will see signs with a single digit number and the Chinese character zhe prominently displayed next to products that are on sale. Experienced shoppers can jump to the conclusion that 7 zhe must mean 70% discount. Alas, the Chinese system encourages shoppers to go one extra step in calculating their discount: i.e., 7 zhe means you pay 70 percent, resulting in a 30 percent discount. Some adults in the West couldn’t do this simple math in their heads. Because, why would you need to? We left all that behind in elementary school.
进到北京任何一家百货公司，你都能看到店家在搞促销活动，商品旁边贴着醒目的促销牌子，上边会有数字和一个中国汉字“折”。有经验的顾客马上就能看出来7折也就是有70%的折扣，中国这种促销方式使得顾客在计算折扣的时候多了一道程序，比如说7折就是支付70%，也就是多了30%的折扣。有些西方人就不会做这类加减，一是没必要，二是他们早就把这点知识还给小学数学老师了。
Another example is the loyalty card, or membership card, offered by retailers, dentists, hair salons and massage parlors, just to name a few. But signing up requires you to do math quickly in your head. The more you spend up front, the bigger the discounts, a not uncommon sales strategy. But commit at your own risk. If that business suddenly decides to close its doors, you will not be refunded, nor will you even be notified.
另一个，比如说在商店，牙医，理发店或者按摩院办理的积分卡，或者叫会员卡。这是一种销售策略，花的钱越多得到的折扣就越多，所以注册会员也需要不断地进行计算。但是同时也要承担风险，比如商店会在没有通知你的情况下就突然关门歇业，你连退款都拿不到。
Shopping for groceries was among the challenges we first encountered in Beijing. Trying to buy milk and yogurt at the local supermarket almost turned into an international incident when, upon seeing all the past expired dates marked on packages throughout the entire dairy section, I demanded to see a manager and tried to bring it to his attention. In vain, of course, as the language barrier prevented us from communicating effectively. Later, a friend explained that those were production dates, not expiration dates, as I had assumed. She also showed me where they helpfully printed the shelf life of each product. So, to put it in American terms, production date+shelf life= expiration date. Again, they are encouraging shoppers to do math.
第一次在北京购买食物也遇到了不少麻烦。我们逛超市的时候想买点牛奶和酸奶却发现整个奶制品区食品包装上的日期已经过期了，我当时就要求见经理想要反映一下，因为语言障碍我们没有达成有效沟通，而这也差一点酿成了“国际事故”。后来有朋友解释说商品上标注的是生产日期而不是到期日，还依次指出商品上印的保质期，按照美国的理解，就是生产日期+保质期=到期日，看吧，还是得做计算。
Newcomers to China will no doubt be confused about this system, which nobody here seems to think twice about. But as an American, it was all very taxing until I got clued in. I often felt put out that I had to be doing math when I simply wanted to buy stuff. But now that I’ve been here a while, I see the wisdom of such a system. Could it be how Chinese people stay sharp into old age? After all, using your brain with word games and riddles are believed to be countermeasures against the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related ailments. It appears that in China, they’ve incorporated into ordinary daily life a brilliant system where nobody forgets their early math lessons.
刚来中国的人毫无疑问会被这种逻辑给整懵，而中国人却早已是司空见惯了。做为一个美国人，我每次想买件东西都要计算，最后弄得整个人精疲力竭，现在呆了一段时间才发现这种逻辑的智慧所在。这会不会就是中国人就算步入老年仍能保持敏锐的秘诀呢？毕竟利用大脑做文字游戏和猜谜活动能有效的对抗阿尔茨海默病并预防机能退化而引起的疾病。而在中国，这种充满智慧的逻辑已经植根于日常生活之中，学到的数学知识总是不会荒废。
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