英國人數學差，是出了名的。前首相卡梅倫去年在一次講話中強調乘法表的重要性，然後記者問他8x9等於多少……他直接轉移話題，說自己只在送孩子上學的車裡和孩子練乘法表。英國國家數學能力中心的調查顯示，英國成年人數學不好導致英國政府每年直接或間接經濟損失200億英鎊。痛定思痛，英國政府決定向數學大國，中國，取經。所以，現在，「中國style」教學法要在英國全面推廣了！
然後，英國人民就炸開鍋了。大家恍然大悟，這不就是我們以前的上課方法嘛……
Learning by rote then. Basically, the way maths was taught in the 50s. Worked well when I was a kid and I enjoyed it too.
這就是死記硬背嘛。基本上，50年代數學就是這麼教的。我小時候覺得效果很好啊，我很喜歡的。
【by rote】死記硬背，機械地
That's not "Chinese style", that's Victorian style. They used to do this the same way in schools all over the British Empire until the post-WWII years ushered in crazy left-wing ideological meddling with the school system and broke teaching so fundamentally that it's a miracle you learn anything useful in middle-school today at all.
這才不是中國style，這是維多利亞style。二戰前大英帝國的學校都是這麼教的！然後他們就引進了各種左翼瘋狂思想，攪亂了教學系統，教育就徹底崩壞了。現在你想在中學學到點有用的知識簡直就是個奇蹟。
【usher in】引進，領進
還有人跑題，讚美中國孩子素質高。
Some pupils from a school near Beijing, China are on a visit to my daughters secondary school. They all speak impeccable English as well as their mother tongue. So very polite and courteous as well - great young amassadors for their country.
中國北京周邊一個學校的學生來訪問我女兒的中學。他們一個個都講一口流利英語，跟說母語似的。特別講文明懂禮貌，真是中國的小大使。
【impeccable】無可挑剔的，沒有缺點的
【mother tongue】母語，本國語言
大多數網友都很贊同這個做法：
Better idea. Let's get ALL schools to actually TEACH instead of pamper the little........darlings.
這樣更好。學校都真真正正開始「教育」而不是「放縱」這些小寶貝吧！
【pamper】寵愛，縱容，過度關懷
但很多人對英國老師不是很有信心。
Common sense at last.But are the teachers up to it?
終於有點常識了。不過老師們真的能勝任麼？
【up to it】能做到
The problem is teaching kids like this, involves hard work. Nobody likes hard work anymore. Especially if you are in a teachers union.
這樣教小孩的問題是，要費很大心力。現在沒人喜歡努力工作了。尤其是你加入了教師工會的話。
還有人把錯誤都怪在英國文化上……
Yet again we are foolish enough to think that you can just copy a teaching method from an entirely different culture and that it will work in our own.
又傻了吧，覺得可以直接從一個完全不同的文化中複製一套教育方法拿過來用。
但是也有人指出，這種教學方法，對於實際能力的培養十分有限。
As a British mathematics teacher who teaches mathematics to children in Shanghai (following over a decade of teaching British children in the UK), I feel suitably qualified to comment on this.
作為一名在上海教數學的英國數學老師（我之前在英國教了十幾年），我覺得自己有資格對這件事做些評論。
It is true that Shanghai's children, in general, have a higher level of numeracy and can perform calculations some three or so years ahead of their UK counterparts. It is not true, however, that this makes them better mathematicians.
沒錯，上海的孩子一般來說是要在計算能力方面比英國同齡人領先3-4年。但是這不意味著他們會成為更好的數學家。
They tend to have a limited appreciation of why they are doing anything, knowing only how to repeat mechanical processes flawlessly.
他們不是很清楚為什麼要這麼做，只知道準確無誤地機械重複過程。
Their understanding of statistics and geometry tends to be significantly behind that of UK children, and their problem solving skills are minimal. In short, yes, these methods are very successful at making 'human calculators', but quite unsuccessful at preparing children for any useful application of that knowledge.
他們對統計和幾何的理解要落後於英國的學生，他們解決實際問題的能力也比較弱。總而言之，是的，這些教學方式非常成功地把他們培訓成「人類計算器」，但在知識的運用方面打得基礎則比較弱。
（來源：中國日報網雙語新聞微信 編輯：Julie）