How to Multiply Using a Soroban (Japanese Abacus) - Part 2: Multiplication on the Soroban

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

That's great! Kids really respond to learning the abacus, and learning the abacus gives them a better understanding of how everything in math "fits together." It's also great training for "mental math." That's what we're doing with our kids - they can add ten numbers in their head as quickly as you rattle them off ;) Keep up the good work ~

[@chikarahotta3588]

hi just found this video a few days ago and i'm very thankful that you have this, it makes the soroban easy to understand and use. i've done a lot of practice and really happy that i can do calculation with ease though sometimes it's still confusing but really i feel great, again thank you very much. i just hope you have video for division as well i'm excited to do that, hope you will come up soon with division on soroban, thank you!

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Thank you for the kind words - I'm glad to hear that you found the videos so helpful! The concepts involved in using the soroban are not that complicated, but with practice you can advance through the different levels of proficiency, much like they do in karate or other martial arts with the colored belts ;). As far as teaching videos, that is something I have considered, but obviously it's a little more involved to create a course with a systematic approach. I'll keep it in mind :D.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

My teaching soroban actually came from a company in Korea. My suggestion is to look around on the Internet for a supplier if you are interested in obtaining one for yourself. I would imagine that a Japanese abacus/soroban company would also have some available ;)

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Okay, here's what's going on: I have to add the 4 (of the "40" from 5 x 8) on the same rod that already has a 6 on it. Since 4 and 6 are tens-complements (numbers that add up to 10), I need to zero out that rod and add 1 to the rod immediately to its left. However, that rod is "filled up" because it has a 9 on it, and 1 and 9 are tens-complements. That means that I have to shift once more to the left to add the 1, resulting in adding the 1 to the leftmost rod ==> (continued)

[@TheProfessionalMom]

Thank you so much! I figured it out! I've wanted to do this my whole life, and I'm so excited to teach this to my kids. :)

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Glad you liked it! I will be doing more videos - I just have to decide which ones would be most helpful ;)

[@dhoward8816]

This is great to see how to set the beads in the correct order for multiplication. But can you show examples with the multiplicand and multiplier placed on the soroban first, as many instructors advocate?

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

(which has four earthly beads on it) and zeroing out that 9. So, those four beads on the leftmost rod get cleared out and the heavenly bead comes down (4 + 1 = 5). Then the intermediate rod that I skipped over gets zeroed out (because 9 + 1 gives a 0 in the non-carry position) and the rod that I had started on also gets zeroed out (because 6 + 4 also gives a 0 in the non-carry position). All that to add the 4 from the 40 ;) Hope this helps!

[@sorobanarab]

THANK YOU SOO SO MUCK, YOU ARE THE BEST MERCI BEAUCOUP, VOUS ETES LA MEILLEURE (french) شكرا جزيلا أنت الأفضل (arabic) you are best, i want to say it by all languages we are waiting more videos, thnkssss

[@sangeethalogesh]

Thanks a lot!looking forward to learn division. Doing 2 digit x 1 digit in mind is extremely simple.But I am struggling with bigger numbers multplication in mind and not sure whether to teach my daughter abacus multiplication if doing in mind is going to be really challenging.

[@mgmartin51]

Where did you get that cool soroban?

[@sangeethalogesh]

Thanks for your reply.can you please show how to do division in abacus as well.

[@koyha5266]

Hey, thanks for the helpful video! Are there any books regarding soroban that you could recommend?

[@m_a_s6069]

I love that giant soroban!!!

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

It's a special classroom one for teachers.

[@syameze2227]

I appreciate you sharing your experience. This is the first video that I've seen by you. In your beginning videos, do you inform people that you are not using the traditional accepted method taught in Japan? It's really hard to UNlearn things. I found a guy on here that also teaches the Japanese Soroban. He has been extremely helpful with teaching me certain concepts that I wasn't able to get by reading books alone, however, I'm glad that I learned what the traditional fingering method is, because he doesn't follow that.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Thank you for stopping by and watching my video! Actually, I am unfamiliar with the method taught in Japan. I learned the soroban from a Korean, so I don't know what differences there are (if any) in technique between how soroban is taught in Japan versus how it's taught in Korea.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Hi - this teaching abacus actually comes from Korea. The company name is "woonju." You can google them, but their website is entirely in Korean - probably not much help for most people ;)

[@onizu]

ok thanks, will wait for the clarification. yes, I have watched your previous tutorials and noticed the L-R way.. thanks!

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Let me review and see how to clarify. In the meantime, I split up the multiplication into two videos with the first video showing left-to-right multiplication, since that is unfamiliar to most (well, most Americans, at any rate). Have you watched that? L-R arithmetic is key to using the soroban, and multiplication is no exception.

[@Seawolf159]

so you still need to do it in your head? But it doesn't get so big because you add them in there as you go?

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Well, you do need to know your times table up to 9 x 9, But all the rest of the computations are taken care of as you keep track with the soroban.

[@sangeethalogesh3606]

I have mastered anzan for add/sub.Can you advice me on how easy it is to do multiplicaton by thinking of mental abacus image.

[@jsano2754]

I still think its easier by pencil and paper. Why did you start on the hundreds?

[@mrrcrogersjr]

Thanks for you work. Excellent job teaching. Here's my question: How would you multiply a series of numbers? For example, 42 X 19 X 39? Would you just use the results on the soroban on the right, and use left rods for the last product?

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Thank you for the compliment ;) With regards to multiplying more than one number, I suppose you could put the intermediate results on one side and the final answer on another, as long as you kept track of things. Or, you could just note it on paper. But just like with pencil and paper multiplication, most of us would need to use an intermediate step when dealing with multidigit numbers ~

[@esthercastellanos9701]

this is amazing, i dont think ill ever be good at it since ive never liked math.. but ill show it to my 8 yr old to see what he thinks. hopefully i can find someone to teach him this.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

+Moniqueen Lovesyou That's great! Kids love this sort of thing and they pick it up easily, especially when they're young. I'm sure if you ask around, you'll be able to find someone to help with teaching your son. Good luck!

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Yes, I am going to make a video explaining division in the near future :)

[@roenne]

Where do I buy the teaching Soroban you are using in the video ?

[@rosyces9749]

this really helps me in my remedial class... where can i buy that soroban? what are the dimensions of your soroban?

[@mylovelygirls3247]

How can I buy this material ?

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Hi - glad it piqued your interest :) No affiliation, but there are options available via Amazon (for example): www.amazon.com/soroban-abacus/s?k=soroban+abacus

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

I know adding L-R is kind of tricky, especially when carrying is involved, but it really is a crucial skill for working with the soroban. But like most everything, it gets easier with practice ;) Don't give up, but persevere!

[@valor36az]

great demonstration

[@onizu]

I didn't get the part where you had to enter 40 (5 times 8) and you quickly jumped two columns back and "zeroed out" stuff.. :S could you explain that part clearly? you didn't explain that in your earlier tutorials. Also is it different from entering numbers as in addition? I mean to enter 4 here you added 5 and subtracted 1, because all your earth beads were up. Is this allowed during addition also? I'm confused :S Please clarify!! I will highly appreciate. By the way thanks a lot for the vid:)

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Like many things in life, start off by practicing relatively easy things and gradually work up to more complex problems ;)

[@GogglesPIU]

I just started using this because the girl on "super brain" killed the competition using this. It is really hard to get used to this when multiplying the 5 digit times 3 digit. However, at least I know how to start it off after seeing your video. :)

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Practice makes perfect! You can do it :)

[@SubramanianGIyer]

how do you add when it comes to 8, you write 0. Using Law of approximation? Not necessarily everyone must know the said law.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

+Subramanian G Iyer If you are adding 8 and you don't have enough beads, you can add 10 and then take away 2, since 10 - 2 = 8 ;)

[@F13TUN]

Easy to understand

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

If you have mastered the mental abacus for addition/subtraction, it should be easier for you to learn mental abacus for multiplication - with practice, of course. I would start with easy problems (2 digit X 1 digit, for example) and work up gradually to several digits by several digits. Generally, you want at least 80% accuracy before you move up to the next challenge ~ good luck!

[@800pieds]

So how come you never use the rightmost column?

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

+800pieds No special reason. You can position your ones column anywhere you want. If you were adding decimals, though (for example), you would want to take that into account ~

[@800pieds]

+clubenglish OK thank you

[@CorneliusFractogram]

+800pieds The smiley faces on the soroban in this video are actually separators commonly found on these devices (usually presented as dots). Their purpose is the same as commas' in e.g. 100,000,000; so that you can immediately tell the number is 100 million. In other words, it's a reference frame. It makes sense to place the units figure on the dot so that it becomes a decimal separator.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Hi! - You can find all my other videos by clicking on my username. This will take you directly to the home page for my KZbin channel. :)

[@nirenupadhyay6772]

Mem,we can't read the sum when you are explaining,it's big problem,all over good, please do something for that. thank you

[@ElectroMac74]

great stuff thanks, I think it will be more complete to buy two of these, and make intermediate calculation too on the soroban.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

ElectroMac74 You're welcome! Glad you found it helpful ;)

[@TheFieryAngel]

This is 4 months late, but I'll reply anyway. When she added 40 she needed to add 4 to the 5th column from the left (I'll call it Column 5). When she adds 4 to that it would get to 10, so she'd have to add 1 to Column 4 (o the left), and 'zero' out column 5. Just like when you add 1 to 9, the ones place becomes 0 and the tens place becomes 1. That made Column 4 = 10, so she had to move over one more, add one to Column 3, and zero out column 5 as well. Hope that made sense.

[@snflwr9497]

I did it using a piece of paper and a pencil. It was fun!

[@induprabhu10607]

Where can I get this abacus?

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Hi - the abacus you see in this video is an extra large one used for teaching. I got it from a Korean company, www.woonju.com. :)

[@induprabhu10607]

Thanks will check it out

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

:)

[@sangeethalogesh]

Hi , Any tutorial on division please???.Thanks in advance

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

+sangeetha logesh Yes, I plan on doing one eventually; I'm working on some other projects at present ~ Thanks for your patience ;)

[@Zivojinovic50]

Very informative video. Im teaching grade 6/7 kids and wanted to ask two questions; 1. when doing multiplication, how do we know where to place the first digit on the right when using a soroban,i.e.how do we know how many digits the answer contains. the example is 22x47 and 23x43, they are both two digit multiplication but one's answer is 4 digit and the other one is 3 digit. 2. where can i buy a teaching soroban that can be stood up like the one you used in the video. Im in Australia its really hard to find a good teaching soroban here. Many thanks if you can reply me.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Hi, and thanks for asking! 1. Multiplication on the soroban is done L-R, so the real question is where do you start on the left. You count how many total digits there are in the multiplier and the multiplicand and move over to that position from the right. So if you had 2716 X 593, you would start at the 7th (4 + 3) position left of the decimal. Regardless, your first digit on the right will always be in the ones position. 2. I got my teaching soroban from a Korean company, www.woonju.com ~ Hope this helps!

[@Zivojinovic50]

clubenglish Thanks for your reply. With my first question, here is my confusion: if Im doing 23x43, the answer should be a four-digit number as both the multiplier and multiplicand are two digit. Therefore I "should" start on the fourth position left of the decimal. But the actual result is 946 which is a three digit number, which means I should start on the third one left of decimal. So Im really confused here. Hope you can help. Many thanks for your time again.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Zivojinovic50 I understand. Think of it as potentially four digits - with your example, the leftmost digit comes from 2 x 4, which is of course 8 and becomes 9 from the carry, but we still start in the fourth position left of the decimal, and mentally think "0 8" for the product. This way we account for the possibility that the product could have two digits (as it would if we had 2 x 5 ==> 10, or 1 0). Think of that leading zero as a placeholder to keep us in the correct column. Before we carry out the multiplication, we don't know whether we will need all the potential digits. 23 x 43 doesn't need all four, only three as you know once you've completed the multiplication, but the product of 27 x 49 would need all four digits because of the carrying involved with the sums. Hope this helps!

[@Gkid974]

Zivojinovic50 Hello ! @clubenglish: thank you for this video (part1 and part2), that was really helpful ! @ zivijinovic50 : you made this ("common" I guess) mistake because you assumed the result of a 2-digits times 2-digits numbers multiplication is a 4-digits number and that's wrong. Your result will be between the lowest 2-digits numbers multiplication 10x10 = 100 and the highest multiplicaiton 99x99 = 9801. That's why it is only a potential 4-digits number. As well, the basic '1-digit times 1-digit' multiplication is between 0x0=0 and 9x9 = 81, so 2-digits maximum. And that's why you have to mentally think of the first 0 for result under 10 like 2x4 = 08. I tended to forget this first 0 when I started learning it, and got my results wrong, but you finally get used to the 0. Btw, you should re-watch part 1 of the video, and all should be clear now. ;-)

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Thanks Gkid974 for your explanation! Left-to-right multiplication takes a little getting used to for those of us who are used to right-to-left ;)

[@tejaswiaddepalli9795]

can you please add the division videos

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

My spring break is coming up so I hope to address that soon. Thanks for your patience! :)

[@theodoresandaroglou1804]

@@Summiteslclubenglish division on abacus

[@eng_arfaisal]

I got double confused...

[@jsano2754]

Using an abacus and math are 2 different things. To use an abacus one must already know math. So whats the point?

[@japaneseillustratednotebook2]

Excellent. I've always wanted to learn to multiply on the soroban, and you did a great job explaining clearly. But please pronounce it soroban (the "a" is like Han Solo). It's driving me crazy.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Young Immersion Japanese Thanks for the compliment ;) I know it's not pronounced how the Japanese would, but I just used the American English pronunciation because that's how Americans are likely to pronounce it :)

[@TheArmageddon6]

subscribed... but is there any way to ask you in private? please let me know... I need your help..thank you very much..

[@ribbonstwist]

looks to me like using base 5 math instead of base 10 ?

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

No, expressing numbers in different bases just means using a different structure to represent that number. Base "n" means that the digits being used are successive powers of "n." For example, the number 124 in base 5 actually means: 1 x 5^2 + 2 x 5^1 + 4 = 25 + 10 + 4 = 39. Similarly, 4203 in base 5 actually means: 4 x 5^3 + 2 x 5^2 + 0 x 5^1 + 3 = 500 + 50 + 0 + 3 = 553. Hope this helps! :)

[@sathishrt]

Superb mam

[@hitoshiigarashi5350]

You're not really using the abacus to multiply

[@spinseffing]

I sat here for about 15 minutes trying to figure that part out. I ended up just adding from right to left, but I know that's against the point of learning this.

[@rakeshx15]

nice

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Thank you!

[@عبداللهبخيت-ش6ح]

ممكن اشوف اول فيديوااا في الابكيس

[@luckyparsi]

Can anyone give me the links for other videos by 'clubenglish'

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Yeah, unfortunately I am unaware of US suppliers of a teacher's abacus ~ :(

[@longlivemankind]

Cool

[@daphneblake7889]

You are not showing how to multiply...you are doing it in your head not on the beads! You are only showing how to add up what you multiplied in your head

[@jsano2754]

Great comment!

[@gregmartin3425]

Doing multiplication on the abacus does require you to know basic multiplication. She did not multiply 357* 82. She multiplied simpler numbers that are part of the basic times table.

[@kohane01]

well, i know this technique is amazing but i still love to use paper to calculate it. At least i know why my teacher count so fast. Faster than me

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Practice makes perfect :) The more you practice it, the quicker you get ~ no doubt your teacher has a bit more experience than you do ;)

[@baselhmdan2294]

Great!

[@johnrickchristopherespenos5184]

You should have shown the numbers above so that we could follow you ...

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Thanks for the suggestion ;) !

[@Thebboy2]

MORE WORKK

[@jsano2754]

Easier on pencil n paper

[@Thebboy2]

@@jsano2754 ima keep it a buck with you i do not remember making this comment at all lmfao i wish I learned the abacus method when i was younger

[@Sonusuri5]

👍👍👌👌👌👌

[@kingping641]

THis system is wrong because a child who never multiplied would never be able to do this because she already assumes that the child knows the multiplication table. Abacus is about pushing and pulling the beads and then reading it based on the system. Only when you read the abacus you should be able to tell what the output is. She used a multiplication table to calculate and then she put the beads in order. She didn't multiply.

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

+king ping The system is "wrong"? What are you talking about? Of course you have to learn the multiplication table, up to 10 X 10. Any method is going to presuppose that you know your basic facts, even a paper and pencil method. Learning starts off with the basics - when somebody learns to read, they start with ABCs, not Shakespeare. "didn't multiply" - ha....FYI, the beads are used to keep track of the products as they are multiplied. You also have to pay attention to which column the products should be in, just like you would have to with paper and pencil ~

[@kingping641]

Remember what i type here. You can do multiplication without knowing the multiplication table at all. Search in youtube how that is. Cuz its too long to type.

[@CorneliusFractogram]

+king ping "You can do multiplication without knowing the multiplication table at all." Indeed. It's called addition...

[@nancytriana8701]

king ping b

[@F13TUN]

king ping shut up. All videos are like this.

[@shitpostgod2656]

Ty fuckin ty

[@jitendrabaragwame4485]

Hame Aage ke liye chahiye

[@roccovitiello7031]

Good clip but a little hevy.

[@Sharon-gs4fg]

10x10= 100

[@sorobanarab]

Hi ! I was wondering if you have heard of this soroban ebook before! payhip.com/b/UvOn It looks like a greate program to help people learn soroban at home. I was just looking for some opinions before i made my decision. By the way i love the content you have been posting lately!

[@cryptic-bot]

THE RODS U ARE USING ARE WRONG COMPLETLY WRONG

[@yasserahmed3126]

Just use a calculator

[@jsano2754]

100

[@Indian-at-heart]

not properly explained.

[@rakeshx15]

and junk

[@abdulwajith4917]

your videos are boring

[@goyu69]

jerk

[@Summiteslclubenglish]

Thank you for the kind words - I'm glad to hear that you found the videos so helpful! The concepts involved in using the soroban are not that complicated, but with practice you can advance through the different levels of proficiency, much like they do in karate or other martial arts with the colored belts ;). As far as teaching videos, that is something I have considered, but obviously it's a little more involved to create a course with a systematic approach. I'll keep it in mind :D.

[@abdulwajith4917]

your videos are boring

[@doot2359]

Fuck off , go away , Idiot !