Great. Now do it for 79*86.
How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
11–20 of 103 posts
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#12Great. Now do it for 79*86.
[deleted]
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#13nice trick for numbers with each digit smaller than 5
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#14This is a variant of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_multiplication that does not make it as easy to carry tens a column to the left as that method does.
I also think lattice multiplication makes it easier to understand for pupils why the trick actually performs a multiplication.
So, I would teach them lattice multiplication instead.
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#15This is indeed very interesting technique, but I don't think it is very practical and fast.
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#1632 year old Japanese here. I can unequivocally say I've never seen anything like this in my life.
Possibly the younger generations, but I somehow doubt it, as people are pretty slow to adopt completely new teaching methods.
Pretty cool though...
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#17Great. Now do it for 79*86.
I'd rather 86*80-86 == 6880-86 == 6794
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#18Every time this comes up it's shot down. It isn't part of their curriculum.
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#19This is a method that is occasionally taught in Japanese classrooms, but one could also say that of chunking or the traditional long multiplication algorithm. Want to know the real super-secret-special Asian magic math sauce? Practice. (But if calling it kungfu math lets you teach it is a US classroom and get precious instructional hours by calling math cultural studies then by all means Orientalize away.) [Edit: I h…
Can't really blame you. I know next to nothing about teaching or Japanese culture, but this article gave me a sick feeling.
Re: How Japanese Kids Learn To Multiply
#20This is cool but not a part of any standard curriculum in Japan despite the title.
Agreed. I went to Japanese elementary school (in college now, so within the last 15 years) and didn't learn this lines method ever. What I found greatest about the Japanese method of learning multiplication was actually the method for learning single-digit products. The Japanese use a system called "kuku" (translated, "9 by 9") which involves memorizing a rhythmic chant that goes through the entire multiplication tab…
My three daughters go to doyogako (Saturday Japanese language school) which follows the standard curriculum which is why I knew. I haven't seen them use the kuku though. I'm actually working with the youngest on flashcards right now.
I've always thought it very valuable that they do math both there and at their regular US school in the hope that it will mean they aren't dramatically slowed down when math appears in a conversation like second language learners are. They certainly are crazy fluent in both languages otherwise compared to any second language learner, but I recently discovered my oldest tends to think of multiplication products in Japanese first even when in an English context. The brain is tricky :-)