How They Count on Their Hands in the Dominican Republic

We recently discussed how people count on their fingers in different countries. Today Jackie and Meegan taught me how they count on their hands in the Dominican Republic. It's similar to how they count in Morocco.  They join the thumb and the pinkie for 1, the thumb and the ring finger for [...]

Birthday Songs From Portugal and The Dominican Republic

Since the “Happy Birthday to You” song has recently gone out of copyright, we've enhanced our collection of Birthday Songs around the World! There are however two birthday songs that we know of that are widely sung and that are still under copyright. One is a Portuguese Birthday Song [...]

Learn 40 Languages for Free on the Internet

Open Culture has a page of free language learning links covering 40 languages. Here are some of the languages you can find links for... Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, [...]

Quince – Sweet Fifteen

The fifteenth birthday is very important for girls in many Latin American countries and in some Hispanic communities in the US.  It's called Quince or Quinceaera (15 years).  It marks a girl becoming an adult.  It's a bit like the Jewish Bar Mitzvah, a Sweet 16 Party and a [...]

Noche de paz – Silent Night in Spanish with an MP3 Recording

Noche de paz is the Spanish version of Silent Night. This Christmas Carol was originally written in German in 1816 by Joseph Mohr. It was called Stille Nacht. Below you can listen to Noche de paz, read the Spanish lyrics and then a literal English translation of the Spanish version. MP3 [...]

Only a Mother's Love – A Spanish Poem with an MP3 Recording

It's May, the month for Mothers Day around the world! Here's a Spanish poem called “Slo el Amor de Una Madre”. You'll find it below in the original Spanish, with an English translation and an MP3 recording of it being recited in Spanish... Slo el Amor de Una Madre Slo el amor de una [...]

De colores – All the Colors – Spanish Song about Springtime

I was inspired to post De colores now because of a drawing my daughter created the other day – it made me think of All the Colors! The song is a celebration of the colors of Spring! This song is originally from Spain. The first translation below was done to fit the tune, so you

The [...]

Can Anyone Help with a Cuban Rhyme/Finger Play that starts with “Chiquitica así”?

Jeannie Backer wrote to us for help with a Cuban Finger Play. Here's her note... My mother from Cuba used to sing a song/rhyme to usthat I only partially remember, maybe you have heard something similar. It's not a song as much as a cute thing that a child says to adult to ask for

The [...]

About the Song “Cooma Lotta Veesay”

We received the note below with the song “Cooma Lotta Veesay”. Many variations of this song exist, including “Kumala Vista”. It also shares lyrics with the action song called “Flee, Fly, Flo“. Here's the email: “In the late 1950s, we lived near a [...]