"Frere Jacques" - One song, many languages...

I love this book (below) from our dear family in Illingen, Germany as well as the other few German song books they have given to me during their precious visits to us (Does anyone else out there like Biene Maja?).

One song in this book is the ever-popular, "Are You Sleeping?" or "Frere Jacques" or however you know it...  It's such a great song for young voices and the simplicity of the melody allows for a little more expansion in some other areas... like languages!

If you don't know this melody or are having a temporary case of amnesia, here is a link to the melody to refresh you: Go Here and click "Listen to this Song"

The English words are:
Are you sleeping, are you sleeping 
Brother John, brother John? 
Morning bells are ringing, morning bells are ringing, 
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong. 

You can teach the song in English first adding in some motions like laying head to the side for "sleeping"

and having "bells" of any type for the "Ding Dang Dong" section.

My boys sing more willingly if they have some animals to "sing" with them.... or act as an audience....

Anyway - After they have the idea of the song down, incorporate other languages as you'd like. Today we did German, but we have done the French and Spanish versions too.... and I found a Swahili one that looks fun! :-)

So, below are a few language options for your multi-lingual learning purposes. And, you'll probably be amazed at how well your kids can speak the various words.... They're amazing little creatures, really...

I started out writing the phonetic equivalents too, but alas, it was a bit difficult to communicate. You can always cut and paste into an online translator and hear the pronunciations for yourself if you need it.

Make sure you keep the same motions/instruments with the international versions so the kids connect that the different text still means (roughly) the same thing.


French: Frere Jacques
Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques,
Dormez-vous, Dormez-vou?
Sonnez les matines, Sonnez les matines,
Din, dan, don; Din, dan, don.

German: Bruder Jakob 

Bruder Jakob, Bruder Jakob

Schlafst du noch? Schalfst du noch?  

Horst du nicht die Glocken, Horst du night die Glocken 

Ding, dang, dong; Ding dang dong 

Spanish: Fray Felipe 
Fray Felipe, Fray Felipe,
Duermes tu, Duermes tu?
Suenan las campanas, Suenan las campanas,
Ding, dang, dong; Ding, dang dong.

Swahili: Eh Yakobo 
Eh Yakobo, Eh Yakobo,
Walala, Walala?
Amka twende shule, Anka twende shule,
Haya njoo, Haya njoo.

Pig latin: r-ay ou-yay leeping-say? 
Just kidding....

Have fun!

Disclaimer.... Please forgive the imperfections in correct punctuation and accent markings... this is not meant to be a textbook-perfect rendering of each language, but enough so you have the idea of the phonetics of the words. Thanks. :-)  

Chinese New Year!

I've never been to China... but we have some friends over there (Hi Amber!) and it's always fun to have an excuse to talk about different countries and their instruments.

Enter.... Gong.

Gongs are Eastern instruments used originally as a signal sounded to begin and end the work day or a call to military action. They can be as small as a few inches in diameter or larger than your average human being. They are flat metal discs suspended on a cord and struck by mallet. In China, some suspended gongs could be heard for many, many miles they were so incredibly resonant.
Now you can find them in concert halls, museums and high school stages for the always entertaining "Gong shows."

So, why not make one?

Did anyone get one, two or ten of those metal containers of popcorn this Christmas and you don't know what to do with the tacky metal tin? Well, I thought the lids at least could come in handy for making a gong.

I pounded a hole around the top part of the lid with a hammer and nail. Of course, unless you are closely  supervising an older kiddo, this is not a step your child should do! And, when pounded through, there are some protruding metal pieces on the back side from the hole, so be sure to cover those up with a piece of duct tape on the back, then pound the nail through again to get a hole in the tape... or whatever you think works best.

The larger the nail, the better for threading a string through it. Mine was kinda small, but I couldn't find a bigger one at the moment.

Thread a ribbon or yarn through the hole and tie.
You may have a mallet from another instrument/toy. I wanted to make ours kind of rustic, so I fastened a paper towel on top of a wooden spoon with a rubber band. So glamorous, I know.

I found the boys doing this before I had to lure them in to play with the gongs:

But, they seemed really excited - especially since anything you hit is a big thrill to them. :-)

We talked about the gong and how to strike it. They loved it.
Of course we had to incorporate a song. What other than, "Gung Hay Fat Choy" a New Year folk tune from China.

The link I used for this tune is no longer working, so to search for the tune, type "Gung Hay Fat Choy" into YouTube or a similar site to find a few examples of the melody.


I instructed them to hit the gong after each line of the song

This is what we did:

Mommy sings: "Gung hay fat choy"   Boys: "bang, bang, bang"
Mommy: "Gung hay fat choy"   Boys: "bang, bang, bang"
Mommy: "Sing happy new year"   Boys: "bang bang bang"
Mommy: "Gung hay fat choy"   Boys: "bang, bang, bang"

K tried to sing while he was striking his gong.
J just liked banging it as loud as he could.

We'll pull these out at random times this week and practice singing the song and hitting the gong.... incorporating some simple patterns as we go. Fun, fun, fun!

Happy Chinese New Year!