Sunday, January 03, 2010
இ Baŋäŋaz இ
Little Johnny misbehaved, got sent off to his room to complete his homework as a punishment. To make sure he is actually doing his class homework he has to read aloud so that mom can hear him from the kitchen. Reluctantly dragging his feet to his room and within minutes Johnny rattled loudly at the top of his voice "2 + 1 son of a bitch is 3". Loud enough to startle the stunned mom who stormed into Johnny's room immediately. "Johnny don't try to be difficult here and mind your language, did you know what you just said is not proper?" reprimanded his mom. "Why?" Johnny innocently protested,"Ms Brown always says that to us". "What!I want to see your headmaster tomorrow" said the exasperated mom. All errors were corrected at the meeting with the headmaster when Ms Brown said it loud and clear "2 + 1 sum of which is 3". :O) Now that I've caught your attention about creative maths why not continue to read on the rest..
Guess the older folks those days have got their ways and means to educated their children. My mama used to say fish eggs are bad and would impair the ability in arithmetics. Maybe she has her point or maybe she knows it is bad for health but did not know the word is cholesterol. I always have this impression that those who are Chinese educated are better or faster in arithmetics than the Bananaz (English Educated) because they use monosyllabic & disyllabic numbers very often? [This is based on my personal opinion as there is no proven records]. With speed perhaps it might give the Chinese educated a better advantage.
Honestly my mathematics sucks at school and I wonder my mama's input of 'bad' fish eggs truly impaired my calculations or the actual consumption itself attributed to my poor maths. Yeah yeah yeah, blame it on the system, the teacher, the government and everybody except myself because I am not stupid but mentally slow haha. When I do my mental calculations I count better in Hokkien (even though I'm Hakka) and not in English, the flow is smoother and faster. Remembered during one meeting where I sat quite close to a CEO of a public listed company, I could hear him calculating mentally and softly in Mandarin after a power point slide flashed onto the screen which he later posed a question regarding some figures related to the slide in English. So are you aware what dialect or languages that you use when come to mental calculations? Food for thought!
Have been tapping my calculator umpteenth times just to make sure I get this simple maths right but in vain still unable to get the answer and would like to ask for some kind assistance from everyone. Ma & Pa Kettle illustrated on the black board very well and I am beginning to believe them more than I can trust my financial calculator. Check out the video, seeing is believing.
25
-- = 14
5
My last entry I stopped at Blunder #3 and now one of the biggest Blunder which I am not going to forget. Still in my primary school then and I was fortunate my godfather was there to correct me instantly. Cannot really remember the full scenario but the three little ugly words uttered there and then stayed in my head forever. Sit tight and hold on to your chair..
Blunder #4 : I asked a question ~ "WHO IS YOU"?
