Chinese Characters Help Improve IQ

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

　　The pictographic nature of the Chinese writing system helps to stimulate the thinking faculty ofchildren. Their intelligence develops better while they learn the characters.

　　This was disclosed by Dr Zeng Zeng, assistant professor3 of psychology at NUS, in aninterview with Lianhe Zaobao as was reported.

　　I am a retired Chinese-language teacher from Malaysia. From my experiences, I have longnoticed that Chinese-medium-educated students always excel in mathematics as comparedwith those taught in other languages. The secret lies in the Chinese characters. The words fornumerals are all monosyllabic4 in Chinese. In contrast, their equivalents in Malay have two orthree 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-syllabicwords, too.

　　The difference between them is most striking when it comes to memorising the multiplicationtable . 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 muchfaster.

　　This has been repeatedly borne out by reports on Chinese-medium-educated students winningprizes in International Mathematics Olympiads.

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

　　練習(xí)題：

　　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?

　　Ⅰ. 1. A 2 . A 3. A

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

　　學(xué)漢字有助提高智商

　　學(xué)習(xí)漢字可能是我國6 歲至12 歲孩童的智商比英國、德國和澳大利亞孩童高的原因。漢字的象形特性有助于激發(fā)孩童的思考能力。學(xué)習(xí)漢字無形中提高了孩子們的智商。上述這些話是新加坡國立大學(xué)心理學(xué)助理教授曾增博士接受《聯(lián)合早報》采訪時所說的。

　　我是一位早期在馬來西亞從事漢語教學(xué)的退休教師, 在教學(xué)中早就注意到以漢語為教育媒介的學(xué)生在數(shù)學(xué)領(lǐng)域中一直領(lǐng)先于以其他語言為教育媒介的學(xué)生。其原因在于: 漢語是以單音節(jié)語素為主, 一字一音節(jié)。反觀馬來語: sa-tu、du -a、ti-ga、em -pat、li-ma、e-nam 、tujuh、la-pan、sem-bi-lan 、se-pu -luh 等音節(jié)都比漢語長, 念起來都比漢語費時多了。又如英語one, two, three, four, five, six, seven , eight, nine,ten, hundred, thousand , million 等, 其中也有好些是語音較長的文字。

　　當學(xué)童在學(xué)習(xí)背誦乘法表時最能發(fā)覺以漢語背誦是各種語言中最快捷的。所以數(shù)目字在以漢語為啟蒙教育的孩童中顯得比較簡單, 在運算過程中也就顯得簡易而快捷多了。

　　這些事實可以從報上屢見不鮮的國際奧林匹克數(shù)學(xué)比賽中來自漢語源流的學(xué)生所獲得的榮譽加以證明。

　　智商測驗很大程度上與數(shù)學(xué)扯上關(guān)系, 因為數(shù)學(xué)好的學(xué)童推理能力自然就強, 這是鐵一般的事實。因此, 筆者在此大力呼吁華裔家長珍惜祖先創(chuàng)造的單音節(jié)優(yōu)秀語言, 在家中先教導(dǎo)孩子們學(xué)會漢語, 讓孩子們能先用漢語去思考問題, 保留這種對數(shù)學(xué)的優(yōu)勢, 提高孩子們的智商。

　　1. IQ 即intelligence quotient ( 智商, 智力商數(shù)) , 是心理學(xué)家進行智力測驗的術(shù)語。EQ 即 emotionalquotient ( 情) , 是指商人在不同境遇中的情感適應(yīng)商數(shù), 特別指在逆境中求生存求發(fā)展的心理動能。

　　2. peer n. ①〔英國〕貴族。②有爵位的貴族, 其中包括: 公爵( duke) 、侯爵( marquis) 、伯爵( earl) 、子爵( viscount) 、男爵( baron) , 如: peers of Scotland /Ireland ( 蘇格蘭/ 愛爾蘭貴族) ; a peer ofthe blood royal ( 英國皇族上院議員) ; peers of the realm[ the United Kingdom]( 英國可以入上院的貴族) ; the House of Peers ( 英國貴族院, 上議院) ③ 同輩, 同事, 伙伴, 同等的人, 同等地位的公民, 如:You will not easily find his peers. ( 他是一個無與倫比的人物。) without peer ( 無比的, 無可匹敵的) 。

　　3. 助理教授。一些國家在副教授( associate professor) 和講師( lecturer) 之間設(shè)立的一種職稱或者職位, 比如: 在美國, 博士畢業(yè)從教的人一般可以在一年甚至更短的時間內(nèi)得到這個頭銜。

　　4. monosyllabic adj. 單音節(jié)的。mono-是一個前綴, 表示“ 單, 一”, 如: monologue ( 獨白) ;monotonous ( 單調(diào)的) ; monopoly ( 壟斷) 。