Articles about 'Countries & Cultures'
June 17th, 2013
Have you ever wondered what is the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain? This video explains it, plus a whole lot more!
Enjoy!
Mama Lisa
June 12th, 2013
A Father’s Day gift from a child can just be a nice gesture. Check out this message I saw on the beach recently. What papa could want more?
June 7th, 2013
Who remembers the expression "I love you with a cherry on top"?
I remember saying it to my mother either to express love or to butter her up if I wanted something!
You can make the expression even stronger, by adding more and more toppings as if your love was an ice cream sundae. You can...
Advertisement
June 6th, 2013
Many of us grew up watching Mr. Rogers. He was on the kids’ show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that ran in some form from 1963 to 2001.
Here’s a Mr. Rogers video song remix called Sing Together that was just released by PBS (the station that ran his show). It’s a sequel to the previous Mr....
June 5th, 2013
The IBM 704 was the first computer to sing a song. You can see how big this computer was in the image above. In 1961, the IBM 704 was programmed to sing the chorus of the song, "Daisy Bell" by Harry Dacre. You can hear its rendition in the YouTube video below…
Here is the chorus...
June 4th, 2013
Jade wrote asking for help with an Italian song from Toritto. Here’s her email:
Hey. Love your site. I was looking for a song my nonna used to sing to me as a child. She was from Toritto, a small town outside Bari. It’s in dialect. I’m probably going to butcher the spelling but this is...
June 3rd, 2013
Here is a sweet video rendition of the German lullaby, Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf, followed by the German lyrics and an English translation.
Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf
Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf, Der Vater hüt die Schaf, Die Mutter schüttelts Bäumelein, Da fällt herab ein Träumelein. ...
June 1st, 2013
Here’s a short color film of New York city taken in 1939. What’s interesting is how much it looks like today, though the city wasn’t as "tall". Everyone was also more dressed up. A lot of people wore hats in those days.
Enjoy!
Mama Lisa
Hattip: Kotke Photo: Wikipedia
May 30th, 2013
Marlena wrote asking for help with a Spanish kids song or lullaby. Here’s her email:
Hi,
I am looking for a song with the refrain "soongee, soongee, soongee" that is sung to infants.
The song is in Spanish. My grandparents were originally from Mexico. My family has sung that song to babies ever since I can...
May 30th, 2013
Semamori (背守り) is an old tradition in Japan of embroidering a good luck symbol or amulet on the back of a baby’s clothing. It was traditionally embroidered on the top back of the child’s kimono.
Semamori means "to protect the back". It was believed that the devil came from behind a person and thus they...
May 30th, 2013
In English, when you don’t understand something, you say "It’s all Greek to me". In French you say either, "C’est de l’hébreu" (It’s in Hebrew) or "C’est du chinois" (It’s in Chinese). In Spanish you say, "Me suena a chino" (Sounds like Chinese to me).
It would be interesting to learn what other languages people...
May 28th, 2013
Grant wrote asking for help with a rhyme he learnt from his grandmother. Here’s his question:
Hi, My grandmother’s parents were from Yugoslavia and she taught us a nursery rhyme from them which I would love to know the meaning. I am typing this as if the rhyme is in English. Any help would be great....
May 27th, 2013
We recently received a Persian children’s song called Lili Hozak with a link to a YouTube animation. The style is very interesting. Here’s what our correspondent Fatima wrote, "I love the animation. Such animations are the Iranian style of animation. They used old patterns of Iranian carpets for drawing the landscapes and the animals too."
You...
May 24th, 2013
Variations of the choosing game Rock, Paper Scissors can be found all over the world. The Korean version is "kai, bai, bo" (sometimes pronounced "gawi, bawi, bo").
In Korean, the order is different. It’s always:
"Scissors (가위 – kai)", "Rock (바위 – bai)" and "Paper (보 – bo)".
You can see a youtube of the game...
May 23rd, 2013
Italian singer and songwriter, Giada de Gioia sent us the following song with this note, "I’d like to submit this song. I am the author of both lyrics and music. It was awarded in Bimbofestival 2011 as best lyrics of the whole competition. Published by Map Milano Italy."
Here’s the mp3 recording, the song lyrics in...
May 17th, 2013
Here’s a lovely poem about The Wind by Robert Louis Stevenson with a couple of mp3 renditions.
MP3 of The Wind
2nd MP3 of The Wind
The Wind
I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass–
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind,...
May 10th, 2013
Debra wrote asking for help with a Yiddish rhyme:
The following has been passed down through the ages (at least 150 years) by my mothers family, though we can only guess what the words mean now or the correct spelling of the words. I am hoping you may recognize it or be able to decipher it...
May 10th, 2013
Jeff wrote asking for help with a Yiddish song. Here’s his email:
Hi,
I grew up reciting a Yiddish rhyme or song where we pinched the skin on the back of each others hands and bobbed them up and down while saying something like (and I’m just writing what it sounded like):
"Sipicle sipicle amadal, kimsimir and kamadal,...
May 10th, 2013
Reduplications are words or phrases that contain a duplicated element. An example is the phrase "riffraff". The two parts of the word are almost the same (i.e. "riff" and "raff"), but they have a small change (the vowels).
When you have a rhyming reduplication, the duplicated element rhymes with the original element in the phrase. ...
May 9th, 2013
Rachel wrote looking for help with an Italian song:
My Italian grandmother used to sing to me a song that went something like.
Peter peter pastela. canavane canela canela cususi felule mascule di...
Main Topics
