Times tables

Simple things are occasionally hard to translate. A few days ago my sister asked me how to say "かけ算の九九の２の段". I thought about it and answered later "the 2nd row of the multiplication tables." I believed this would at least get across to the native English speakers. A couple of days ago I asked a young American guy who is working in my client office and is always showing off his Japanese to other foreign workers.
"かけ算の九九って知ってる？"
"くく？ナンデスカ？"
"It's the times tables."
"aha, You say 'くく' in Japanese? Sounds cute." As always, he started to talk in English. His Japanese always lasts for the first one or two phrases.
"Do you understand if I say I forget the 4th row of the multiplication tables?"
"yyyyes, I think so."
"I meant that I forget 4 times 2 makes 8. 4 times 3 gives 12...."
"Yeah I thought so."
"Is there any better way to say?"
"Well... I would say.... factors of 4 in the multiplication tables."
"Oh, 'factors' sound good! I did not remember the word."
"hmmmm....You can also say the 4 times table. Yes! this should be better. An elementary school kid would say so. "
It seems that there is no fixed way to say it like 「段」particularly prepared for かけ算.
He added "the 4th row of the times tables might be confusing, because sometimes the tables start with factors of 2. In that case 4th means the 5 times table."
Well, by the way, did you notice that I said "table" and "tables"? He told me that he thinks "the times table" basically means 段 in Japanese. So くく is the assembly of those tables. This is one of the tricks we Japanese fall for. Again, we tend to overlook singular and plural. When saying "the times tables", native speakers have a matrix of numbers in their mind, while "the times table" means only one row or 段. Also, for that matter, if you said you are learning "time table" instead of "times table", you would probably be taken as a railway buff.
There should be many things we overlook or we cannot understand but they take for granted, We don't know them unless we grow up in English speaking culture.