Appendix E
KEEPING COUNT
People have kept count of things since the earliest times. We keep count every day. How many books do
I have? How many problems have I done? How many goals? How many runs? How many points?
When I was younger I worked on electronic equipment and I had to keep count of how many units I
had repaired each day. I had a goal to repair more than 80 units each day. I reached 80 several times but
I never passed it.
People often keep count by drawing four vertical strokes and then crossing them out with a fifth
stroke. That way it is easy to tally the amount at the end by counting in fives: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, etc.
Some Japanese women worked for the same electronics company and they kept count by writing
what they said was the Japanese or Chinese symbol for 5.
At the time I was using the wrong sequence, but Jack Zhang kindly showed me the correct sequence
for this book. It is how I still keep score when I am counting various objects. The methods are useful
when you have to count a selection of items. For instance, red, green, blue and yellow items that are all
mixed up. I might make a list like this to keep count:
When I have finished sorting the items I simply count my symbols and write my totals to the side.
A Russian method of counting is to draw squares and then a line diagonally through when you reach
five. It looks like this:
These are methods you can play and experiment with. See which method of keeping count you like
best.