Math and English

          I saw this sign in a math class at school yesterday. 

It made me laugh.  I have observed many students now and find that people in general are either math people or English people.  There are some who excel in both.  And there are those who don’t get either.

          Jenna prefers math.  Although there may be different ways of getting the same answer – the answer is consistent.  It won’t ever change.  There is only correct answer.  No exceptions.  English, on the other hand, is full of exceptions.  It’s a wonder that anyone is able to learn it at all!  I would think learning it as a second language would be even more challenging than it is as a first language – but I can’t say for certain as it is my native language – but still confusing at that.

         Math NEVER ends.  Some of us are taught to count before kindergarten.  We are taught that numbers start with 1.  Somewhere along the way we are taught that "1" is really not the starting number, nor is 0 as there are all the negative numbers that take place before 0 comes along.  And then there are a whole slew of fractions and decimals that take place between each number causing numbers to have no beginning and no end.  Nothing about numbers is final - except for the answer to every problem - well, except for complicated algebra that may have no definite answer except for C-2x=xyb.  What kind of answer is that?  Why are we using letters in math anyway?

          I don’t think there are any “solid” rules in English.  There are ALWAYS exceptions. “i” before “e” except after C.  And yet we have words like forfeit, weird, and science that destroy that theory.  Or how about G takes on a different sound when followed by a, o, and u as opposed to e, and i which would make the “g” take on the “j” sound such as “giraffe” and “gem” but uh-oh.  What about  “girl” and “geyser’?  And what is up with Y sometimes passing itself off as a vowel and a consonant? 

          I don’t have a problem with the basics of math.  It gives me a headache when we have to start finding the value of X and Y and the chart that points up and down and to either side and how y dominates these two areas while x I part of something else.  Huh?  And triangles will always add up to 180 – a term that perhaps I had learned in my youth but did not store it in my memory and so had never even thought much about it until yesterday when the instructor explained it to the class and I re-explained to a couple of students who weren’t either paying attention or just didn’t care – sort of like me.  I mean, really, what relevance does that triangle value have in my life?

Oh, and let’s not forget all the vocabulary words that are needed for math.  Words like integers, diameter, circumference . . . why is it that English is needed for math, but one doesn’t have to be familiar with shapes or numbers in order to  learn English?  Even with all the silly rules and exceptions, I prefer English to math.