“泡”在数学里长大的她说：做到这一点比有天赋更重要
Growing up "soaked" in mathematics, she says: achieving this is more important than having talent
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上海 Shanghai
来源：澎湃新闻·澎湃号·湃客 Source: The Paper·The Paper Account·Pai Guest
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小学前就开始数学启蒙，五年级开始参加数学竞赛，如今已经在多个竞赛中摘得金牌…在特别劝退人的数学上，17岁的Vivian的成就相当耀眼。但她却说，自己刚入门时，也觉得数学很难。而且，身为数学教授的爸爸几乎没有辅导过自己，都靠妈妈的启蒙和自己的独立学习。这更让人好奇，这样一位数学才女是如何成长的？
Starting math enlightenment before elementary school, participating in math competitions from the fifth grade, and now having won gold medals in multiple competitions... In the particularly daunting field of mathematics, 17-year-old Vivian's achievements are quite impressive. However, she says that when she first started, she also found math very difficult. Moreover, her father, a math professor, hardly ever tutored her; it was all thanks to her mother's early education and her own independent learning. This makes one even more curious about how such a math prodigy grew up.
文丨周岁 编丨Luna Written by Zhou Sui, Edited by Luna
除特别说明外 Unless otherwise specified
图片均由被采访人授权使用 All images are authorized for use by the interviewee
“如果你问Vivian一个简单的问题，可能会得到一个不简单的回答，比如她的年龄是多少？
If you ask Vivian a simple question, you might get a not-so-simple answer, like how old she is?
‘4687天。’这位松鼠山的居民毫不犹豫地回答。”
'4687 days.' The resident of Squirrel Hill answered without hesitation.
看到自己四年前的采访报道，17岁的Vivian Loh在屏幕前笑起来：“哈哈，那时候的我对大数字真的着迷！”
Seeing her interview report from four years ago, 17-year-old Vivian Loh laughed in front of the screen: "Haha, I was really fascinated by big numbers back then!"
Vivian Loh是谁？ Who is Vivian Loh?
2019年，年仅12岁的她，拿下了美国中学生顶级数学竞赛Mathcounts宾州冠军，成为了宾州36年来第一位夺冠的女孩，并在当年代表宾州参与全国赛；
In 2019, at the age of just 12, she won the Pennsylvania championship in the top U.S. middle school math competition Mathcounts, becoming the first girl to win in Pennsylvania in 36 years, and represented Pennsylvania in the national competition that year.
在九年级和十年级，两度入选美国数学协会举办的奥数夏令营 (MOP)集训，这是入选美国奥数国家队的必经之路，每年只从20万人中筛选60名学生；
In ninth and tenth grade, she was twice selected for the Mathematical Olympiad Program (MOP) training camp organized by the American Mathematical Association, which is the pathway to joining the U.S. Math Olympiad national team. Each year, only 60 students are selected from 200,000.
2022年、2023年，连续两年入选美国代表队，参加欧洲女子数学奥林匹克（EGMO），并获得金牌；
In 2022 and 2023, she was selected for the U.S. team to participate in the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) for two consecutive years and won gold medals.
就在和外滩君远程连线的前几天，她才刚刚结束在麻省理工的Math Prize for Girls竞赛之旅，这已经是她第三次参加这项竞赛了。
Just a few days before her remote interview with Bund, she had just finished her Math Prize for Girls competition at MIT, which was her third time participating in this competition.
仅仅是这一部分的成绩，就已经足够亮眼。稍微了解Vivian家庭的人，可能会觉得，这事归功于她的爸爸——卡内基梅隆大学数学教授罗博深，他曾担任美国数学奥林匹克代表队总教练长达十年。
Just this part of her achievements is already impressive. Those who know a little about Vivian's family might think that this success is due to her father, Po-Shen Loh, a mathematics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who served as the head coach of the U.S. Math Olympiad team for ten years.
但事实却是罗教授在家几乎没有亲自地教过Vivian和她的弟弟妹妹。在家挑起大梁，负责三个孩子的数学启蒙和学习的，其实是妈妈Debbie。Debbie毕业于加州理工地球物理系的她，并非数学专业出身，所以她总是自己先学习和掌握，再去辅导孩子们。
But the fact is that Professor Luo hardly ever personally taught Vivian and her siblings at home. The one who took on the main responsibility at home, overseeing the children's math initiation and learning, was actually their mother, Debbie. Debbie, who graduated from the Geophysics Department of Caltech, was not a math major, so she always learned and mastered the material herself before tutoring the children.
不过说到Vivian在数学上的成功，Debbie连连说自己的功劳没那么大，都是孩子自己努力。那么，在Vivian的视角下，数学怎么会有那么大的魅力？学习数学又是怎样的经历呢？
However, when it comes to Vivian's success in mathematics, Debbie repeatedly says that her own contribution is not that significant and that it is all due to the children's hard work. So, from Vivian's perspective, what makes math so fascinating? What was her experience learning math like?
Vivian Loh
“
"Actually, when I was little, I couldn't really get the fun of math either. I thought it was just the stuff my parents showed me. When I first started trying to solve problems, I also thought math was really hard!" Unexpectedly, when Vivian first encountered math, her feelings were similar to most people's.
However, as time went on, I started to feel that being able to solve problems independently was a really cool thing! Unraveling one difficult problem after another, I felt addicted to it and grew to like math more and more.
这个回答也让外滩君越发好奇，这样一个数学才女是怎样长成的？
This answer made the interviewer even more curious about how such a math prodigy grew up.
不以成绩为导向 Not oriented by grades
让兴趣引领数学之路 Let interest lead the way in mathematics
Vivian是家中长女，家里还有个小两岁的弟弟，和年纪最小的妹妹。
Vivian is the eldest daughter in the family, with a younger brother who is two years younger and the youngest sister. When talking about her favorite family activities, Vivian said she likes having dinner together as a family in the evening, going to church together every week, and spending two hours studying mathematics every day after school.
“我真的很喜欢这两个小时！因为每天在学校时间很长，我也有其他作业，所以能有这两个小时专门留给数学，我觉得太棒了！”
I really enjoy these two hours! Because the time at school is very long every day, and I have other homework, so having these two hours dedicated to mathematics is fantastic!
Vivian对数学的热爱，总是在言语间不自觉地流露出来，这和妈妈的启蒙大有关系。
Vivian's love for mathematics always unconsciously shows in her words, which has a lot to do with her mother's enlightenment.
以常人的眼光来看，妈妈Debbie的数学启蒙相当“大胆”：孩子们还没上小学时，就已经开始学数学；Vivian一年级时，就在妈妈的辅导下，钻研《中学竞赛数学》（Competition Math for Middle School）里的题（这本书是爸爸推荐的）。
From an ordinary person's perspective, mom Debbie's approach to teaching math is quite "bold": the children started learning math before they even entered elementary school; when Vivian was in first grade, she was already working on problems from "Competition Math for Middle School" under her mom's guidance (this book was recommended by her dad).
Vivian和妹妹Diana Vivian and her younger sister Diana
Debbie的“独门打法”背后，也是基于她对数学教育的深度思考。而这一切也都是为了一个目标——让孩子们觉得数学“有意思”。
Behind Debbie's "unique method" is her deep reflection on math education. And all of this is aimed at one goal—to make the children find math "interesting."
01
很多家长很容易陷入一个误区：觉得孩子做越多的题，就越能学好数学。殊不知，如果基础概念没有掌握牢靠，那么就像一座大厦的地基没打好，可能会越做越错，越来越有挫败感。
Many parents easily fall into a misconception: thinking that the more problems their children solve, the better they will learn math. Little do they know, if the basic concepts are not firmly grasped, it is like building a skyscraper on a shaky foundation, which may lead to more mistakes and increasing frustration.
所以，Debbie非常注重孩子们在理解概念的基础上，再去做题。在最开始教孩子们认识数字的时候，她几乎花了80%的时间来解释什么是数位（个、十、百、千、万等），比学校里花的时间都要多得多。
Therefore, Debbie places great emphasis on having the children understand the concepts before solving problems. When she first taught the children to recognize numbers, she spent almost 80% of the time explaining what place value is (units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, etc.), much more time than what is spent in school.
02
把抽象的数学视觉化 Visualizing abstract mathematics
众所周知，抽象思维的发展需要时间，因此孩子觉得数学很难理解很正常。越是年龄小的孩子，越需要视觉化的东西帮他们理解抽象的数字或算式。
It is well known that the development of abstract thinking takes time, so it is normal for children to find mathematics difficult to understand. The younger the children, the more they need visual aids to help them understand abstract numbers or formulas.
Vivian就还记得刚接触“阶乘”时，讲到“4x3x2x1”，妈妈没有让她直接计算结果，而是四个小动物排队顺序的情景，来解释它的意义。计算“4x3x2x1”的结果并不费力，但是能用排序来理解它，思维上无疑上了一个层次。
Vivian still remembers when she first encountered "factorials." When explaining "4x3x2x1," her mother did not ask her to directly calculate the result but used the scenario of four small animals lining up to explain its meaning. Calculating the result of "4x3x2x1" is not difficult, but understanding it through sorting undoubtedly takes the thinking to a higher level.
这一点在妹妹身上，更是和兴趣深深结合。为了让喜欢画画的妹妹更有兴致听讲什么是数字，Debbie把数字画成了一列载着餐车（代表百位），每个车上都放着碗（十位），碗里放了几粒米（个位）。
This point is even more deeply integrated with interest in her younger sister. To make her sister, who loves drawing, more interested in listening to what numbers are, Debbie drew the numbers as a series of dining cars (representing hundreds), with each car holding bowls (tens), and each bowl containing a few grains of rice (units).
妈妈Debbie日常会带妹妹Diana用画图学习数学
Mom Debbie usually teaches her younger sister Diana math through drawing.
后来，Vivian也学着这样给妹妹出题：“两个人都喜欢粉刷房子，一个人一小时刷2栋，另一个人一小时刷3栋，xx小时他们一共能刷几栋？”两个人在纸上画房子解题，一点儿也不觉得枯燥。两个人一边画房子，一边解题。
Later, Vivian also started giving her sister problems like this: "Both people like painting houses. One person paints 2 houses per hour, and the other paints 3 houses per hour. How many houses can they paint together in xx hours?" The two of them drew houses on paper to solve the problem and didn't find it boring at all. They solved problems while drawing houses.
03
Debbie特别注重在家营造一种思考数学的氛围。除了每天放学后的数学时间，更早之前，一家人在孩子们上学前也会一起花两个小时讨论数学题。
Debbie particularly emphasizes creating an atmosphere of thinking about math at home. Besides the daily after-school math time, even earlier, the whole family would spend two hours discussing math problems together before the children went to school.
Vivian still remembers a day in seventh grade when she, her brother, and her mom solved the same set of problems like a competition team. In the end, it wasn't about who got the most answers right, but about how many different ways they could think about the same problem. In the clash of ideas, Vivian always found a lot of joy. Although as she grew older, her mom tutored her brother and sister more, Vivian still felt that "the time spent discussing math with family was wonderful and important."
当然，也有时候几个人都推算不出来，只能参考官方的参考答案。但思考数学这件事早在不知不觉中成了孩子们的习惯。
Of course, there are times when even a few people can't figure it out and have to refer to the official reference answers. But thinking about math has unconsciously become a habit for the children.
在Debbie看来，尽管她对孩子的启蒙很早，但强迫孩子提早学绝不是目的，更不能用“多刷题”的方式来逼迫孩子“提早学”。她始终认为“有意思”才是对数学最高的评价。现在看来，她做得真的很成功。
In Debbie's view, although she started her children's education early, forcing them to learn early is not the goal, and using "more practice" to force them to "learn early" is even less acceptable. She always believes that "interesting" is the highest praise for math. Looking at it now, she has indeed been very successful.
Vivian和弟弟Vincent、妹妹Diana的合影
A photo of Vivian with her younger brother Vincent and younger sister Diana
Take Vivian for example, she has always been ahead in her math studies at school: in fourth grade, she attended classes with eighth graders; in fifth grade, she started learning Algebra 2, which is usually an elective in eleventh grade; in ninth and tenth grades, she took two math courses; now, she is taking Multivariable Calculus, the highest level math course the school offers. If she really wanted to pursue progress, Vivian could have completed all the math courses the high school offers long ago.
But Vivian says, "For me, it doesn't matter much whether I learn school math quickly or extensively, because the math that many truly skilled mathematicians enjoy studying, such as geometry, algebra, number theory, and discrete mathematics, is completely different from the content of school math."
从Vivian举的几个例子，就能看出她对数学的理解俨然已经超越了普通高中生。但她和爸爸妈妈还是决定慢一点，把时间多留给自己喜欢的事。“有一些年我在学校干脆就没选修数学课，而是自己钻研感兴趣的数学题。”
From the few examples given by Vivian, it is clear that her understanding of mathematics has already surpassed that of an ordinary high school student. However, she and her parents still decided to take it slow and spend more time on things she likes. "For some years, I didn't take math classes at school, but instead, I delved into math problems that interested me."
作为一位高段位妈妈，Debbie的很多做法一般人难以复制。但优秀的教育从来不是原封不动的复制，她以兴趣为导向的教育理念，契合孩子能力和喜好的引导方式，这些思考很有借鉴意义。
As a high-level mom, many of Debbie's practices are difficult for the average person to replicate. But excellent education has never been about exact replication. Her interest-oriented educational philosophy and her way of guiding children according to their abilities and preferences are very insightful.
勇于跳出舒适圈 Dare to step out of your comfort zone
每一天进步一点点 Make a little progress every day
Vivian在12岁时，数学水平就已经超过了妈妈。当被问到，有什么特别实用的学习建议时，Vivian想了想，提了两个关键词：挑战和坚持。
At the age of 12, Vivian's math level had already surpassed her mother's. When asked if she had any particularly practical study tips, Vivian thought for a moment and mentioned two keywords: challenge and persistence.
挑战难题和坚持尝试，很多时候是相辅相成的。回想起来，其实Vivian和弟弟妹妹，从小就在妈妈的教导下，耳濡目染了这样的习惯。
Facing challenges and persisting in trying often go hand in hand. Looking back, actually, Vivian and her younger siblings were influenced by their mother’s teachings and developed such habits from a young age.
有一次，妈妈问妹妹：“一张纸剪成100个纸条，需要剪多少次呢？”4岁的妹妹不假思索地回答要100次，这是她这个年纪的直觉。
Once, their mother asked the younger sister, "How many cuts are needed to cut a piece of paper into 100 strips?" The 4-year-old sister answered without hesitation that it would take 100 cuts, which was her intuition at that age.
直接告诉妹妹要剪99次很简单，但这也剥夺了她思考的机会。所以，妈妈选择牵起妹妹的手，让她看看手指和手指缝的数量关系，让她自己想明白为什么正确答案是99次。
It would have been easy to directly tell the younger sister that it takes 99 cuts, but that would have deprived her of the opportunity to think. So, their mother chose to hold her sister's hand and show her the relationship between fingers and the spaces between them, letting her figure out why the correct answer is 99 cuts.
在Vivian9岁以前，钻研的数学题大多是妈妈从各种中小学数学竞赛题中选的。她说：“一开始，我也觉得很难。这不像学校的数学作业，你知道该用哪个知识。你永远不知道下一道竞赛题是哪种类型，我能做的就是尝试各种不同的方法，看看哪一种有用。”
Before Vivian turned 9, most of the math problems she delved into were selected by her mother from various primary and secondary school math competitions. She said, "At first, I also found it very difficult. Unlike school math assignments, where you know which knowledge to use. You never know what type of problem the next competition question will be, so all I could do was try different methods to see which one worked."
她还记得十年级的一次竞赛，那是一次相当大的挑战。 She still remembers a competition in the tenth grade, which was quite a big challenge.
她在场上遇到了一道几何题，是她最喜欢也最擅长的内容，所以她觉得自己非得把这道题解出来不可。结果4.5小时的比赛，她在这一道题上就花了3个小时。
She encountered a geometry problem on the field, which was her favorite and best subject, so she felt she had to solve it. As a result, in the 4.5-hour competition, she spent 3 hours on this one problem.
“这很吓人，因为现场在倒计时，我变得越来越紧张，我也迫切地想知道自己到底能不能做出来。”“做得出”或“做不出”，给一个结论很简单，但如果轻易地就判定自己“做不出”，那可能会失去很多机会。
It was very scary because the countdown was on, and I became more and more nervous. I was also eager to know whether I could solve it or not." "It's easy to give a conclusion of 'can solve' or 'cannot solve,' but if you easily decide that you 'cannot solve' it, you might miss many opportunities.
那一次，Vivian顶住巨大的压力，选择继续尝试，终于在最后关头给出了答案，她也长长地松了一口气。“如果我试了两个小时，就判断自己做不出来，那我就真做不出来了。”
That time, Vivian withstood immense pressure and chose to keep trying. Finally, at the last moment, she provided the answer and breathed a long sigh of relief. "If I had judged that I couldn't solve it after two hours, then I really wouldn't have been able to solve it."
现在，作为一个数学竞赛经验丰富的过来人，Vivian认为很多时候，困难不是来自数学，而是我们自己给的。有的题虽然看起来难，但上手之后，就会发现没那么难。
Now, as someone with rich experience in math competitions, Vivian believes that many times, the difficulty doesn't come from math but from ourselves. Some problems may look difficult, but once you start, you'll find they are not that hard.
Vivian说：”就像竞赛试题都有编号，一般最后一题会非常难，但有的时候，倒数第二题才是最难的。所以挑战难题，最重要的是克服心理障碍，有的时候我们只是自己吓自己。”
Vivian said, "Just like competition problems are numbered, usually the last problem is very difficult, but sometimes the second-to-last problem is the hardest. So, the most important thing in challenging difficult problems is to overcome psychological barriers. Sometimes we just scare ourselves."
Vivian和弟弟Vincent、妹妹Diana的合影
A group photo of Vivian with her younger brother Vincent and younger sister Diana
在日常学习中，Vivian不仅会选择比自己能力高一些的题来研究，还会在学习环境上给自己加难度。
In her daily studies, Vivian not only chooses problems that are slightly above her ability to research, but also increases the difficulty of her learning environment.
除了每天日常的学习和钻研数学题，她还在线上数学课中担任助教，不仅负责讲解数论知识，还开设了每周一到两次的office hour，解答学生的疑问。
In addition to her daily studies and delving into math problems, she also serves as a teaching assistant in online math classes, not only explaining number theory but also holding office hours once or twice a week to answer students' questions.
“学生问的题是随机的，我也只是尽力解决它们，这有点像数学竞赛，我不知道会遇到什么题，但无论如何我要尝试解决。”
The questions students ask are random, and I just try my best to solve them. It's a bit like a math competition; I don't know what problems I'll encounter, but I have to try to solve them no matter what.
但是拿到随机难题还是次要的，这件事最难的地方在于，office hour是在线直播，同时有很多人观看。“被这么多人看着，这比在数学竞赛的场上解题还难。”
However, getting random difficult problems is secondary. The hardest part of this is that the office hour is live-streamed online with many people watching. "Being watched by so many people is harder than solving problems in a math competition."
Vivian说，“不过，这种压力也锻炼了我的思考速度，我必须在这么多眼睛的注视下，快速分析题目，并且尝试用正确的方法解答。长期锻炼下来，不仅帮助了我的线上教学，也让我对未来要参加的竞赛准备得更好了。”
Vivian said, "However, this kind of pressure also trained my thinking speed. I have to quickly analyze the problems and try to solve them correctly under the watchful eyes of so many people. Over time, this training not only helped my online teaching but also better prepared me for future competitions."
在Vivian看来：“在不断的挑战和坚持中，你能渐渐锻炼出对数学的一种直觉。”触类旁通，大概就是进步的真正原因。
In Vivian's view: "Through constant challenges and persistence, you can gradually develop an intuition for mathematics." This ability to draw inferences about other cases from one instance is probably the real reason for progress.
拒绝被劝退 Refusing to be discouraged
女孩们只是需要多一点榜样 Girls just need a few more role models
大家都说数学劝退，不过女孩们似乎更不被期待。就说Vivian12岁时获得Mathcounts宾州冠军，她一下子打破了宾州36年来男孩夺冠的记录，数学竞赛领域的男女参与度差距可见一斑。
Everyone says math is discouraging, but girls seem to be even less expected. For instance, when Vivian won the Mathcounts Pennsylvania championship at the age of 12, she broke the 36-year record of boys winning the championship in Pennsylvania, highlighting the gender participation gap in math competitions.
那作为一个女孩，Vivian在学习数学、参加竞赛的道路上，是否体会到性别的压力呢？
As a girl, did Vivian feel gender pressure while studying mathematics and participating in competitions?
“我觉得我没有受到过直接的歧视，大家对我都非常友善。”Vivian说，自己的同龄人里，也很少有人把数学成就、天赋和性别联系在一起。
"I don't think I've ever faced direct discrimination; everyone has been very kind to me," Vivian said, adding that among her peers, few associate mathematical achievements and talent with gender.
Vivian和弟弟Vincent、妹妹Diana的合影
A photo of Vivian with her younger brother Vincent and younger sister Diana
但Vivian也提到，数学领域的女性明显少于男性，是个不争的事实。相关的研究数据也有不少。
However, Vivian also mentioned that it is an undeniable fact that there are significantly fewer women than men in the field of mathematics. There is also a lot of related research data.
2018年，美国国家经济研究局就发布过一份题为《数学成绩中性别差距动态》的论文，文中提到，1999年至2007年参加美国数学竞赛(AMC）的前5000名九年级学生中，女孩只有30%；到了高年级，这个比例进一步下降到22%。很多成绩优秀的女孩感到沮丧，要么在高年级时成绩下降，要么干脆退出数学竞赛。
In 2018, the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States published a paper titled "The Dynamics of Gender Gaps in Math Achievement," which mentioned that among the top 5000 ninth-grade students participating in the American Mathematics Competition (AMC) from 1999 to 2007, only 30% were girls. By the higher grades, this proportion further dropped to 22%. Many high-achieving girls felt frustrated, either their performance declined in higher grades, or they simply quit math competitions.
论文的其中一位作者，麻省理工学院经济学教授Gregory K. Palm，就是在辅导女儿所在的数竞队时，发现女孩人数远低于男孩，才开展的这项研究。
One of the authors of the paper, Gregory K. Palm, an economics professor at MIT, discovered that the number of girls was far lower than that of boys while coaching his daughter's math competition team, which led to this research.
所以，为了鼓励女孩们更多参与数学，现在也有了越来越多专为女性设立的竞赛。
Therefore, to encourage more girls to participate in mathematics, there are now more and more competitions specifically for women.
Vivian参加了两次的欧洲女子数学奥林匹克竞赛（EGMO）就是如此。这项比赛受到了中国女子数学奥林匹克竞赛（CGMO）的启发，始于2012年，比赛内容和形式国际数学奥林匹克竞赛（IMO），向全世界的女性参赛者开放。
Vivian participated twice in the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO). This competition, inspired by the China Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (CGMO), started in 2012. The content and format are similar to the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and are open to female contestants worldwide.
2023EGMO期间Vivian和队友的合影 A group photo of Vivian and her teammates during the 2023 EGMO
从左至右：Jessica Wan; Vivian Loh;
From left to right: Jessica Wan; Vivian Loh;
Kristie Sue; Isabella Zhu
还有她连续多年参加的Math Prize for Girls（MP4G）也是如此。竞赛的其中一位创始人，美国商人Arun Alagappan曾说，小学数学课上，女孩的表现与男孩一样好，甚至更好，但在大学学习数学并从事数学相关职业的年轻女性数量却出现了惊人的下降。“我们创建MP4G就是为了帮助消除性别刻板印象，支持年轻女性将更高水平数学视为一项有趣、有挑战性且回报丰厚的追求。”
Another example is the Math Prize for Girls (MP4G), which she has participated in for several years. One of the founders of the competition, American businessman Arun Alagappan, once said that girls perform as well as, if not better than, boys in elementary school math classes, but the number of young women studying mathematics in college and pursuing math-related careers drops dramatically. "We created MP4G to help eliminate gender stereotypes and support young women in seeing higher-level mathematics as a fun, challenging, and rewarding pursuit."
2009年，MP4G在纽约大学举办第一届竞赛，从2011年开始，举办地点迁移到麻省理工，至今已经办过了十五届。每年都会通过AMC，从美国、加拿大的十二年级及以下的女孩中选拔至多300人参赛。
In 2009, the first MP4G competition was held at New York University. Starting in 2011, the venue was moved to MIT, and it has been held fifteen times so far. Each year, up to 300 girls from the United States and Canada, from grade 12 and below, are selected to participate through AMC.
在Vivian看来，“很多女孩不愿意接触数学，可能只是因为她缺少一个圈子，缺少一些榜样。”Vivian一直觉得，自己不算特别擅长社交，但是通过数学竞赛圈，她已经认识了不少志同道合的朋友。她12岁参加Mathcounts全美决赛时，就在现场遇到了自己在数学论坛上聊了多年的朋友。网友见面，分外激动，两个小姑娘手拉手聊了很多。
In Vivian's view, "Many girls are reluctant to engage with mathematics, possibly because they lack a community and role models." Vivian has always felt that she is not particularly good at socializing, but through the math competition circle, she has met many like-minded friends. When she participated in the Mathcounts national finals at the age of 12, she met a friend in person whom she had been chatting with on a math forum for years. Meeting an online friend in person was very exciting, and the two little girls held hands and talked a lot.
如今，很多数学竞赛也早已成为了一项社交活动，女孩们在比赛之后，还可以参加游戏，结交朋友。尤其是MP4G这种大型比赛的赛友圈，里面已经有不少人成为了教授、医生、商界领袖、工程师、计算机和生物医学科学家，以及数学家；她们的工作也涵盖了航空、机器人、人工智能和金融服务等各种STEM领域。这也让其他女孩们看到了自己可能成为的样子。
Nowadays, many math competitions have also become social events. After the competition, girls can participate in games and make friends. Especially in the MP4G competition circle, many participants have become professors, doctors, business leaders, engineers, computer and biomedical scientists, and mathematicians. Their work covers various STEM fields such as aviation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and financial services. This also shows other girls what they can potentially become.
MIT官网对赛事进行报道，图源MIT NEWS The MIT website reported on the event, image source: MIT NEWS.
对Vivian来说，爸爸虽然在家不直接辅导，但一直是个优秀的榜样（当然妈妈也是）。因为“他对数学总是有很大的热情，也喜欢帮助其他人。我觉得他正在做的事很有意义，一直激励和启发着我。”
For Vivian, although her father does not directly tutor her at home, he has always been an excellent role model (of course, her mother is too). Because "he always has a great passion for mathematics and likes to help others. I think what he is doing is very meaningful, and it has always motivated and inspired me."
在这样的榜样作用下，Vivian也产生了帮助其他人学习数学、参与竞赛的想法。如今，她也找到了一群同样对数学抱有极大热情的男孩女孩，大家一起运营着一个面向女孩的数学辅导项目。
Under such an exemplary influence, Vivian also had the idea of helping others learn mathematics and participate in competitions. Nowadays, she has also found a group of boys and girls who share a great passion for mathematics, and together they run a math tutoring program for girls.
Vivian虽然嘴上说着自己“不太想做太多课外活动”，但不知不觉就已经因为数学做了很多了。
Although Vivian says she "doesn't really want to do too many extracurricular activities," she has already done a lot because of mathematics without realizing it.
Vivian和爸爸参加 Vivian and her dad participate
NY Math Circle
2019/04/05
Vivian和爸爸参加 Vivian and her dad participate
Berkeley Math Tournament
2022/10/15
妹妹Diana和爸爸参加 Younger sister Diana and dad participate
Joe Holbrook Memorial Math Competition
罗教授多年陪同孩子参加数学活动 Professor Luo has accompanied children to participate in math activities for many years.
聊到最后，对于同龄人的建议，Vivian兜兜转转又回到了兴趣与热爱这个点上。
In the end, when talking about advice for peers, Vivian circled back to the point of interest and passion.
她说，“你知道吗？其实我认识很多人，他们研究数学竞赛才一两年，就能和学了8年的人获得同样的成绩。关键在于你有多喜欢数学，有多少动力来钻研数学，只要是真心喜欢数学的人，不管什么年龄开始，都可以变得擅长。”
She said, "You know what? Actually, I know many people who have studied math competitions for only one or two years and can achieve the same results as those who have studied for eight years. The key is how much you like math and how motivated you are to delve into it. As long as you truly love math, no matter what age you start, you can become proficient."
原标题：《破记录，进集训，拿金牌…“泡”在数学里长大的她说：做到这一点比有天赋更重要》
Original title: "Breaking records, entering training camps, winning gold medals... She grew up 'immersed' in math and says: Achieving this is more important than having talent."
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