Doing Math in Different Language

[Alberto Candel]

It is interesting that not only I must add in Spanish, but even arithmetical operations have a different "feeling" in different languages. Multiplication in Spanish "feels' like a 2-dimensional object, as if measuring area: 7 x 9 is a rectangle of size 7 by 9 in Spanish (7 por 9), but it is a linear object resulting from placing a length of 9 seven times (7 times 9, which would be "7 veces 9" in Spanish). So the commutative law for multiplication is implicit in Spanish, but requires a proof in English. I wonder if this is just an idiosyncrasy.