Language Game of School Math

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This research that focused upon the 'language game of school math' in the Japanese elementary school showed that almost all the pupils calculated and solved queer problems like "There are four apples and eight oranges. Multiply them and get the answer.," although it was informed in advance that there may be some queer problems in the questionnaire. It is clear that they give very little attention to the reality of given word problems, they think that the math problems can be solved only by following the procedure, and they believe that they never need to be realistic to solve math problems because those are only 'math problems.' These facts shows how and for what this game that is called 'school math' maintained.The data of the comparative research in Nepal are contrastive to those. Math of shopkeepers and farmers in Nepal is different from that of elementary schoolers'. For example, the major response to the unrealistic math word problems like "Punya Bahadur bought 3 buffalos. One buffalo costs 6 cents. How much did Punya pay for 3 buffalos?" is laughing and pointing out that it costs too low. The way of solving math problems are also different from that of schoolers'. When someone was given problem, peoples around him gathered to solve it collectively. This means that it is unnatural situation for them to solve problem individually.The comparative analysis of math using activity between Nepal and Japanese elementary school shows that both kinds of math has its own solving procedures and tools that had developed in different ways. The facts above mentioned shows that the cognitive process of math is socially constructed through participating certain community of practice and interacting as a member of such a community with socio-cultural situation.