1. Rice Paddies and Math Tests
By: Rachel, Victoria, Kelly, and Kevin

2. Summary
There is an Asian saying that no one who can rise before dawn 365 days a year can fail to make his family rich.
The hard intricate work of operating a successful rice paddy is shown to have produced an ability for precision and complexity.
The Asian languages are shorter and more logical for numbers and it improves significantly over time
The author thinks that Asians aren’t smarter at math they are more compliant because of the fluidity of their language

3. Cultural Legacy Among Asian People
Ancestors grew up harvesting rice
They would have hundreds of different types of rice
The differences between the systems between the east and west suggests that being good at math may be rooted from a group’s culture
Asian children can hold more numbers in their head and do calculations faster
Asian people have a more logical counting system

4. Rice Paddies & Rice Farmers
The typical rice paddy is about as big as a hotel room
A typical Asian rice farm might be composed of two or three paddies
A village in China of 1500 people might support itself entirely with 450 acres of land, which in American Midwest would be the size of a typical family farm
Working a rice field is much more difficult than a wheat field
The annual work time in wet rice farm is 3000 hours per year
As for the normal work hours on a farm is about 2000

5. Differences between Asian and American Way of Learning
When memorizing number sequences…..
“Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be uttered in less than one- quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is “si” and 7 “qi”). Their English equivalents for “four” and “seven” – are longer: pronouncing them takes about one third of a second. The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.”

6. Rice Paddies and Math
Just like harvesting rice, math takes patience, skill, and focus
When growing up in an Asian village you learn the qualities needed to work on the wet rice farms and those same qualities are needed in math
When you learn those things young, you can apply them to other things or subjects

7. Text-to-Text
How does the occupation of a wet-rice farmer relate to chapter two: 10,000-hour rule?
Chapter 2 explains how if practice something for 10,000 hours you have mastered it
Chapter 8 talks about how they invest their time in working on the farm since they were young, perfecting the skills and inheriting the qualities that apply to other things in life

8. Text-to-Self
Manners is a part of life, since I was young my parents have been teaching me manners and now I know about respect and how to speak and treat friends, colleagues and adults.
Can anyone choose a quality about themselves that has been taught to them over and over again and now can be applied to your life?

9. Text-to-World
No matter what part of the world you are from, we all have the same common goal to become successful
Working hard and trying to reach your goal is the only way to become successful
Working at the wet rice farm is equivalent to us going to school…it prepares us for our future and we generate qualities that can help us later in life

10. Text-to-Media
Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty in Mississippi to a teenage single mother. She was raised her whole life in an inner-city neighborhood.
She worked hard even though her background wasn’t great and she eventually became one of the most successful people in the world.

11. Questions
Is the Asian the only culture that uses a different way of learning?
Even though most people work hard, why does only a small percentage of people become financially successful?
Why does the author think only the life of a farmer’s life is meaningful compared to all the other hardworking jobs?