How Japanese School Children Learn to Multiply?

Japanese school children do not learn to multiply our column and table based technique. Instead, they draw lines!

When you find out how it works it will blow you mind.

Japanese Kid’s Multiplication Algorithm

1. First of all you take first number and draw a group of lines, corresponding to each number parallel to each other. Let’s say it’s 25. You draw a group of two lines and then further along, but still parallel, you draw 5 lines.

2. Take the second multiplier and do the same thing, but crossing the other group.

3. And final point – counting the number of intersections in each group.

Below you can see how it works – and how it works for large numbers as well.