So for context, I went to first grade in mainland China before immigrating to the United States, in China, they teach kids this weird trick that’s basically like reciting a “poem” thing, which I didn’t remember what it was called until I recently googled it. Its apparantly called the “九九乘法口诀表” or 9x9 Song / “The Nine-nine song” (Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_multiplication_table#The_Nine-nine_song_text_in_Chinese).
So like… in 2nd grade, for which I was in the US, multiplication was very easy for me, well… at least up to 10x10. Like idk how to explain it to someone who’s doesn’t speak a variant of Chinese, and even the rhythm only works for me in Mandarin somehow, when I try to use Cantonese, which is the language I speak at home in the US, I cannot replicate the rhythm to make thay thing work, this “Poem”/“Song” is only available to me in Mandarin, like when I think about multiplying together any 2 single digit number, I instictively use the “九九乘法口诀表”.
Like its goes from 1x1 then next lines are 1x2, 2x2, then next are 1x3, 2x3, 3x3, then its 1x4, 2x4, 3x4, 4x4, etc… you get the idea, mutiples of 1, then 2, then 3. So if I need to multiply something by 7, I can start from the line where multiples of 7 are. Sometimes I can remember the exact phrase of it like for example 3x7, without starting from 1x7, then 2x7, then 3x7.
Like I never thought too hard about it, it kinda just became the “normal” way I do multiplication. But someone asked a question on Lemmy about reading analog clocks and I probably didn’t answer their question correctly but that was when I kinda was like: oh wow I forgot that my way of multiplication is probably different from everyone else in the west.
Like if you told me to teach a English-Only speaker on how to do multiplication tables, I… um… I don’t know how I would teach that, the “九九乘法口诀表” doesn’t have the rhythm in English so I doubt converting the it to English would work.
Like even though I speak English as my primary language now, and I barely have any fluency in Mandarin or even Cantonese which I speak at home (and never learned any vocabulary beyond the basics), the “九九乘法口诀表” multiplication thing is always done in mandarin somehow, like its always been stuck in my brain even after all these years in the US.
TLDR answer to my own question. I do it using “九九乘法口诀表” which takes me 1-2 seconds to recall a specific line, so basically, anything up to 10x10 takes about 2 seconds for my brsin to process, 11x11x to 12x12 takes about 5-10 seconds, anything bigger and I just giveup using my brain and pull out a calculator. I memorized 10x10 since first grade, then 12x12 probably by like 2nd grade or maybe first half of 3rd grade.
How do y’all do it, is it easy or hard?
Edit: Okay so the best way for me to explain “九九乘法口诀表” is that: Think of PEMDAS (order of operations), but its for the entire multiplication up to 9x9.
Most I just know instantly since I need them for work from time to time and just memorising them is quicker than a calculator.
I just memorized it to be the fastest and get candy, I was a fat kid, and memorizing the single digits is necessary to do math in your head? I never understood how to use my hands and i cant hold a visual that well, like 3 apples become 5 become 1 become a truck in the span of a second
Only did it to 10x10 in my country :3
It was like… 2nd or 3rd grade? Anyhow, Im still bad at them, but that’s cause my brain does numbers weird lol
We stopped at 10x10. I’m still bad at them!
In US, in 1st/2nd we did phonetic learning of the times tables 12x12 as well as the states in alphabetical order and the president’s in order of inauguration.
still easy to recite today.
the states in alphabetical order and the president’s in order of inauguration.
Lol I only know like 10 president’s name before it was too much depressing history for me. They never tested us on it. They made us fill in state names with a blank US map and the capital of each, I think I got like a 70/100 on the test, didn’t like it. Idk why learning 50 US states is gonna help me since I’m not going to like half of them cuz um… ahem politics 👀
I think we had up to do up to 12 times tables by 3rd or 4th grade. I remember starting in 1st at school but really I learned them from Schoolhouse Rock. In the states Schoolhouse Rock was on Saturday Mornings between regular cartoons and they had such great songs.
We stopped at ten and I’ve never learned them due to it being, in my opinion at the time, waste of time as you can always just count. They are pretty useful actually. 😅
In the UK we also had a song thing for the first 12 times tables, but I was never good at rhythmic recall as a kid so I always had some issues with 7 and 8 times tables.
Was pretty good at all the rest by the start of Year 3, though.
I never did. I was never interested in memorization, when I already had ways to do multiplication slowly using basic principles.
I still pull out a calculator for nearly every calculation. I can’t do 6×7 instantly, if I don’t have a calculator I’d take my time and break it down to something that I can solve. And sometimes I get it wrong.
That’s never stopped me though. I’m studying electrical engineering and computer science, both of which are very math-heavy, and I get top grades. Most exams allow a calculator anyway.
That’s said, I don’t recommend this way of life. I think the multiplication table is genuinely really useful to have memorized. I’m a bit of an idiot for never doing that.
I never learned it. We had specific tests just for them i 3rd grade and I just could never be bothered to actually learn them. I just did the calculations every time and even with the really short time limit I could get over 90% right. So I thought why bother.
I struggled learning them but that was in part due to me not wanting to learn them. I got by, barely. Currently, I’m pretty good with some of them but no expert.
I was 8 years old when I learned the multiplication table and I honed it through repetition over the next couple years. Everyone in our class had a multiplication table taped to the upper left corner of our desks. I think it was optional. Not required. It was more of a fashion statement at the time, showing who had a “Trapper Keeper” because we’d cut that multiplication table out of the corner of one of the folders that the trapper keepers came with. So it was in style at the time in the mid 1980s. In idle moments I’d study it. It was fascinating as I began to notice the patterns and the magic of the math and it was fun to learn & memorize. Grateful to learn that in my youth because my brain would not be so pliable & spongelike these days.
I for sure learned the 11 times tables first and best. Up to 10.
One of the very few teachers I remember (I’m 68) was Fred Ross due to how effectively he taught me the times tables and more. That guy for months on end drilled the times tables into our heads by repetition. There were no calculators or internet then so it was the most effective way and it worked too.
He also posed a question that to this day I have not found the answer. An English only word with the letter q in it but no u after the q. Can only be a regular word not a name or a city.
I learned up through 12 x 12 in 2nd grade. Some of them were easier than others. I remember drilling with my grandfather for hours to memorize the ones I was having trouble with. The incentive was that if I learned them, he’d buy me a GameBoy game I wanted. I did in fact get the game when I managed to master multiplication—it was Mole Mania, a sokoban-style puzzle game with the gimmick that there is an underground layer you can move through that also has its own obstacles.
