Timeline for What great mathematics are we missing out on because of language barriers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 10, 2020 at 6:42 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | A conjecture both deep and profound/Is whether a circle is round/In a paper of Erdös/Written in Kurdish/A counterexample is found. | |
| Apr 13, 2018 at 21:35 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | I agree with cheater. Not knowing Arabic or Hebrew or Japanese, I cannot imagine trying to read mathematics in any of those languages. The initial part of the learning curve is simply too high. | |
| Mar 23, 2018 at 12:04 | comment | added | cheater | It bears mentioning that the language barrier fragments communities, disabling the network effects that propagate ideas across a social graph. | |
| Mar 23, 2018 at 12:02 | comment | added | cheater | As someone who knows 8 languages, and did exactly as you say with maths books, I disagree for two reasons. First, picking up a language to understand maths is harder than you say. As you continue reading a book, higher level concepts crop up that require advanced use of a language. It's easy to unknowingly misunderstand something. On top of that, the cognitive load is immense and prevents you from learning maths. You may have read a chapter or two, but not a whole book. Second, the language barrier fragments communities, disabling the network effects that propagate ideas across a social graph. | |
| Apr 11, 2010 at 22:07 | comment | added | cheater | I can't say I agree with the first part: people have differing aptitude for foreign languages. You are talking to a guy who knows numerous languages at a level sometimes surpassing that of the native speakers, but I know that 1. many aren't that good at it 2. there simply isn't time to spend translating papers when you're slow at doing so. Your answer also doesn't address the ability to use natural language for swift talk about maths. Finally, I don't think someone who only knows a language on 'I want eat now' level can understand elaborate motivation behind a complicated concept. | |
| Apr 11, 2010 at 22:07 | comment | added | cheater | Hi Felipe. Thanks for the suggestion - very interesting, I am rarely given recommendations on good Italian papers. | |
| Apr 11, 2010 at 21:35 | comment | added | Felipe Voloch | @Sam: Anything by Severi. E.g., his paper on correspondences and the Castelnuovo-Severi inequality or his book Trattato di Geometria Algebrica, which is a textbook and quite readable. | |
| Apr 11, 2010 at 21:23 | comment | added | Sam Derbyshire | Reading some classical Italian algebraic geometry sounds like a great idea! Do you have any recommendations for fun readable papers? | |
| Apr 11, 2010 at 21:14 | history | answered | Felipe Voloch | CC BY-SA 2.5 |