Kuku no Uta - Japan's Math Song

My youngest son is in the 2nd grade and he is now learning his multiplication tables. I hear that things are a bit different in America these days, with some new strange ways of learning in the common core math, but at least when I was in school we simply memorized our multiplication tables, and it is still much the same in Japan. The twist is they have a strange song to help them memorize them. The song uses some non-standard pronunciations that make the song flow better than it might otherwise and is suppose to help make memorizing easier. And it seems to work well, because even a hairy barbarian like me can easily memorize this song (it helps that my son is constantly playing it or singing it himself).

The song is called kuku no uta(九九の歌), literally "nine nine song". 9 9 because the table ends at 9 x 9.

This is kind of fun. Let's look at the start of it.

It begins with 1 x 1 = 1, which is sung as in ichi ga ichi (いん いち が いち)

Literally that is singing "one one is one". It is a little weird though because one is usually pronounces ichi, not in (i has the ee sound in Japan's Latin script romaji, so it's pronounced as een)

The next one is 1 x 2 = 2, sung as in ni ga ni (いん に  が に), literally "one two is two".

Jumping ahead to a higher one, we have 3 x 6 = 18, sung sabu roku jūhachi, literally "three six eighteen". No ga ("is") this time. And 3, which is usually san, has the nonstandard pronunciation sabu. I'm not sure if the ga is missing for reasons of space or otherwise. I asked my wife but she doesn't know. I think it might have something to do with working on a soroban (an abacus), but not many people use those these days, so it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, I know most of you don't know Japanese, so the sound changes probably aren't so interesting to you, but maybe the entire song might be a little interesting. So here is a version from youtube:

I asked my son for a good one. He says this one is too slow so he doesn't like it but, he added, it's probably good for foreigners so we should pick it. So there you go—my son picked this one out just for you guys!

Anyway, just kind of an interesting trivia here. As my kids go to school and I see more of the Japanese education system, these things that are different from the American system I was raised in always jump out at me.

Hi there! David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.


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This is just like what we learnt when we were kids in Hong Kong, memorising the multiplication up to 9x9.

I think maybe Cantonese is a bit easier than Japanese because all the numbers have one syllable only and they never change form, making the chanting very simple. When you get to the double digits they're still based on the single digits like three ten four is 34, so you only ever have to learn the 10 words.

The YT video you shared is done very well, I tried searching for some Cantonese ones they're all a bit naff with animations and 5 year olds singing along 😆

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Normally Japanese is the same way—numbers after 10 are just the single digits combined, making it is normally easier. The strange pronunciations of this song are unique. But they do seem to work—math is often a very strong subject of nearly everyone here.

I'll have to look up one of the Cantonese videos! I'm curious how that one sounds.

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I think in general Asians are very strong in maths - and I notice you said math, another interesting cultural difference 😉

Here's a video in Cantonese if you're interested

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(Edited)

Haha math/maths is a long long debate in US/UK English, like color/colour, etc. My friends who use UK English are always accusing me of not knowing real English.

Interesting video! It sounds strange to me, but of course I am used to the Japan version so that's why.

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The new math is pretty crazy. I can't even wrap my head around it. I am glad I just memorized it all like most people. I still have to stop and think in the higher 6's, 7's, and 8's though. Those always were a bit of a jumble for me. I still know them, just not as quickly.

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I'm about the same, I can't understand the new math and I mostly remember the old, so it all works out. Luckily here doesn't use new math, so I don't have to worry about it.

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Yes, very lucky for you!

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It's good to learn the memorization stuff by singing👏 I didn't know this Ku Ku song. My second son will be in elementary school next year, so I will teach it to him.
To memorize prefectural capitals, I recommend “Rock and Roll Prefectural Capitals” by Chisato Moritaka😉

Thank you for the additional delegation to hive-ja, we have reached 17,000 HP!
I sent 1 HSBI as a thank-you gift🎁

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