Originally Posted by incogneato
In the book he also asserts that the reason asians are good at math has everything to do with the way their language simplifies number naming, thus making the numbers much simpler to remember and hold in your mind while doing calculations. The focus almost implies that it is THE reason, forget about people having math inclination and aptitude. A little offensive IMO.

A thought on that--If what you're saying is true, then basically now he's telling us that Asian-Americans who never learned their native language will not be as "smart" as their Asia-residing counterparts? smirk

Austin: I was never talking about work ethic (I agree with you about that), but how Gladwell seems to say Asians are smart because they're hard working, but doesn't really provide an explanation for why other countries farm, too, and aren't as good as math.