Maths

While studying Japanese last week I came across the word for multiplication table, 九九 (kuku) which translates into nine nine. I thought it a little strange at the time but didn't think too much about it.

Yesterday I was asked to join the 3rd grade maths class as my JTE was absent because her sick was child. My role was to go to the class and read out equations the teacher wrote on the board such as 2x + 4x = 6x and (a + b)² = a² + 2ab + b². The students were unfamiliar with how to read such equations. The goal was just to expose them to words like: multiplied by, divided by, squared, cubed, equals etc.

It was my first time attending a full class other than English since I started teaching here. An interesting thing came up. In Japan students learn the multiplication tables only up to 9 x 9, (hence the name) as opposed to 12 x 12 in Ireland and most western countries. The math teacher told me that in India the students learn up to 17 x 17!

At the end of class the teacher the asked the students to give Mr. Owen a 'challenge' question. So one smart-ass kid stands up after flicking through his maths book to find the most difficult equation he could find and reads out this:

√40 + 5√2 / √5 = ?
Read: the square root of 40 plus the 5th root of 2 divided by the square root of 5 equals ...

Yeah, you win this round kid!