七八五十六。That's how I learned it way back when...and it carries through even to now. If I have to do any multiplication, I end up multiplying in Chinese in my head before translating it back into English.
Anyhow, I was quizzing my 3rd grade daughter on her multiplication tables last night, when I told her that I learned mine in Chinese and still go back to doing them in Chinese. She asked me to show her examples, and then I started to quiz her on her multiplication in Chinese. I started by saying the whole problem in Chinese and having her translate. Then I gave her just the two numbers and she needed to give me the answer in Chinese. It was actually quite fun...and gave me an idea...why not have her class fill in their multiplication tables in Chinese? It would be a way to connect directly to their math curriculum, and practice their Chinese numbers at the same time! Besides, I think the students would think that it's very unusual to know the multiplication tables in another language.
So...I decided that I will be giving them a multiplication table fill-in sheet tomorrow, and will let you know how it worked out. I'm so excited about it, and I hope the students will be too--this class is so great because they are always eager to learn and LOVE doing math!
In case you're interested in trying it in your own classes, I have saved the file as a .pdf and is downloadable here (and if you try it, please let me know how it works!):
multiplication_table_in_chinese.pdf |