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    Contents

    Mama Lisa Now Has a Facebook Group

    Can Anyone Help with a Portuguese Nursery Rhyme?

    Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for New Years

    Does Anyone Know of a cd with Portuguese Kids Songs? Or would someone like to sing a couple of songs for us?

    Looking for a Portuguese Saying or Nursery Rhyme for a Baby Shower

    How to Find Sheet Music, Tunes and MP3’s on Mama Lisa’s World

    Free Online Language Dictionaries

    Great Link for Language Learning

    Mama Lisa’s World News and Multimedia Features

    Portuguese Lullaby – NANA, NENE

    May Day – Labor Day Marches and Rallies Around the World

    Please Send An Endearing Term for Grandma and Grandpa in Your Language

    Posts

    Mama Lisa Now Has a Facebook Group

    Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

    We’d love it if you’d join the Mama Lisa Facebook Group. You can post anything you’d like about your culture. You can post your own musical recordings or YouTube videos… Links to culture and musical sites… Photos of your country… Questions about songs or cultural issues… Anything related to World Culture and Music…

    Click on the icon below to access the group. If you have a Facebook account already, you just need to click on “Join the Group” to join. If you’re not a member, you simply have to sign up for free to become a member and then you can join the Mama Lisa Group…

    Mama Lisa's Facebook Group Badge

    Looking forward to seeing you in Facebook!

    Mama Lisa

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    Can Anyone Help with a Portuguese Nursery Rhyme?

    Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

    Cyndi wrote asking about a rhyme from her grandmother…

    Lisa,

    My grandmother always said the same nursery rhyme. She has recently passed away and I would love to know what it means.

    Words (I am not sure of the spelling), this was not an English rhyme. It is believed to have been Portuguese, but I am not sure.

    Bo wo skee wat tin dot tin
    wa dot tin chew
    isk a diddly, diddly dee
    isk a diddly, diddly dee
    bo wo skee wat tin dot tin
    wa dot tin chew

    Any help you can give on this would be much appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Cyndi

    If anyone can help with the original words to the rhyme and/or an English translation, that would be great! Please let us know in the comments below.

    Thanks!

    Mama Lisa

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    Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for New Years

    Saturday, December 29th, 2007

    In many parts of the world, the foods eaten on New Years Eve and New Years Day have important symbolic meanings. These symbols seem to fall into several major categories.

    The first class symbolizes financial prosperity. This type of food is round like coins. Often, the dish will be round beans, like lentils, that will expand when it cooks, symbolizing expanding fortunes. Another financial symbol is food with big green leaves, representing paper money. The green may also be for growth. Foods like this are cabbage, collard greens and kale. Golden colored foods are also good for financial rewards in the New Year.

    The second type of New Years food symbol represents the hope of having food on the table throughout the year. Pork is one important symbol of eating well year round. It’s also a sign of prosperity. In the olden times, if your family had a pig, you were doing well!

    In some countries, actually having food on your table and/or plates at the stroke of midnight is a sign that you’ll have food throughout the year.

    A third symbol involves eating sweet food in order to have a sweet year. In some countries people bake a coin in a sweet cake and the person who gets the coin will have good luck throughout the year. In Spain, Portugal, and parts of South and Central America, 12 sweet grapes, one for each month of the year, are eaten at midnight. The hope is to eat 12 sweet grapes to have 12 sweet months!

    Fish is thought to symbolize good luck in many countries.

    Another symbol for good luck involves eating food in a ring shape – like doughnuts or ring shaped cakes. This represents coming full circle to successfully complete the year – that’s good luck.

    In Japan, long Buckwheat Soba noodles symbolize long life. Just don’t break them while you’re eating them!

    Here’s a list of some symbolic food types and the places where they’re eaten for the New Year. Feel free to let us know what’s eaten for New Years in your country, in the comments below.

    Round Food (Like Coins for Monetary Luck)

    Italy, Brazil & Germany (Lentils)
    Germany (Pancakes)
    Philippines (Round Fruit)
    Southern US (Black-eyed Peas)

    Green Leafy Vegetables (Like Paper Money for Monetary Luck)

    Southern USA (Collard Greens & Turnips)
    Denmark (Kale)
    Germany (Sauerkraut)

    Golden Food (Like Gold for Monetary Luck)

    Southern USA (Corn Bread)

    Pig (Symbol of Plentiful Food in the New Year)

    Hungary (Roast suckling pig with a 4 leaf clover in its mouth)
    Italy (Cotechino con lenticchie – pork sausage with lentils)
    Germany (Kassler mit Sauerkraut – financial luck)
    Pennsylvania Dutch (USA – Pork with Sauerkraut)
    Austria
    China

    Food on the Table or Plate at Midnight (Symbol of Plentiful Food in the New Year)

    Germany
    Philippines

    Sweets (Symbolic of a Sweet Year or Good Luck)

    Hungary (Doughnuts)
    Greece (Round cake called Vasilopita – made with a coin baked inside – whoever gets the coin is lucky throughout the year)
    Israel (Jewish New Year – Apple dipped in honey & grapes)
    India
    Egypt (Candy for kids)
    Korea (Sweet Fruits)
    Norway (Rice Pudding with an almond inside – good luck to the one who gets the almond)

    12 Grapes at Midnight (Symbolizing 12 Sweet Months)

    Spain
    Portugal
    Mexico
    Cuba
    Ecuador
    Peru

    Ring Shaped Food (Good Luck)

    Mexico (Rosca de Reyes – Luck)
    Netherlands (Olie Bollen – Doughnut)

    Fish (Symbol of Good Luck)

    Germany (Herring & Carp)
    Poland (Pickled Herring)
    Denmark (Boiled Cod)
    Italy (Dried Salted Cod)
    Japan (Red Snapper – Pink is a lucky color)
    Vietnam (Carp)
    China
    Sweden (Seafood Salad)

    A Happy, Lucky and Prosperous New Year to All of You!

    Mama Lisa

    Many thanks to Ed Gawlinski for pointing out that they eat lentils in Italy for the New Year, which lead me on this long quest that resulted in this discussion!

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    Does Anyone Know of a cd with Portuguese Kids Songs? Or would someone like to sing a couple of songs for us?

    Saturday, July 14th, 2007

    Teresa wrote:

    I would love to buy a cd with all those Portuguese nursery rhymes. I have been trying to search on the net and I just can not find anything. Any ideas on how to get the cd with songs featured in your home page.

    Thanks
    Teresa

    I found a couple of Portuguese Children’s cd’s on CD Baby. I’ve never heard them – but you can listen to clips on the site. You can click the link to get there. Or, if anyone would like to recommend a CD or would like to sing some of the songs on my Portuguese children’s song pages, please comment below or email me.

    Thanks!

    Lisa

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    Looking for a Portuguese Saying or Nursery Rhyme for a Baby Shower

    Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

    I received this note yesterday:

    Hi,

    I was wondering if anyone could suggest a nursery rhyme, song or quite from a classic children’s book that is in Portuguese. I am doing my sister-in-law’s baby shower invite and would love to put something like this on there, in her language.

    Thank you

    If anyone can help out, please comment below.

    Thanks!

    Lisa

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    How to Find Sheet Music, Tunes and MP3’s on Mama Lisa’s World

    Saturday, January 6th, 2007

    In addition to this blog, I also host Mama Lisa’s World. Mama Lisa’s World is a large collection of children’s songs and rhymes from countries all around the globe.

    Matt, a music teacher from Rhode Island, wrote a question to me, the other day, about Mama Lisa’s World:

    Hey Mama,

    I love the concept of your site. It’s been exciting to watch it grow. My only frustration is not being able to find either written (preferably) or audio music to accompany the lyrics. How do I find the tunes for all these great lyrics?

    Matt
    Music Teacher, Rhode Island, USA

    Here’s what I wrote back, I’m sharing it with you, in case it helps you too…

    Hey Matt,

    Thanks for writing!

    We’ve just added basic sheet music to a lot of songs on the Germany, France, Hungary, Spain and Mexico pages – plus many others.

    We’re now in the process of converting the whole site to a database. We’re halfway through. Hopefully by the summer we’ll have a feature that will let you do a search on songs that have sheet music, midis or mp3’s. Midis play the tune of a song. MP3’s are recordings – usually of someone singing the song.

    But for now, the songs on the countries that are in the database are working on a simple system. On the country pages they have symbols next to the song if they have special features. Here’s the key…

    KEY TO SYMBOLS

    Musical Symbol – this song has sheet music
    Midi – this song has a Midi tune
    MP3 – this song has an MP3 recording
    Video Icon – this song has a Video recording

    If there’s anything in particular you’re looking for, you’re welcome to ask – in case I know if we have it or not – I may be able to guide you to the right place to find what you’re looking for.

    And, of course, we’re always looking for more sheet music, midi’s and mp3’s, so if you’d like to contribute any from your culture, we’d be thrilled!

    I hope this helps!

    Mama Lisa

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    Free Online Language Dictionaries

    Friday, December 22nd, 2006

    While I have this link at hand, I’d like to recommend www.freedict.com. It’s a site devoted to free online language dictionaries. You can translate between English and the following languages:

    Afrikaans
    Danish
    Dutch
    Finnish
    French
    Hungarian
    Indonesian
    Italian
    Japanese
    Latin
    Norwegian
    Portuguese
    Russian
    Spanish
    Swahili
    Swedish

    I find that it can usually succeed at translating the words I need.

    Feel free to recommend other language dictionaries that you like in the comments below.

    -Lisa

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    Great Link for Language Learning

    Monday, December 4th, 2006

    If you’re trying to learn a new language, I’d recommend checking out LanguageGuide.org.

    Users visit different theme related pages (i.e. about insects, the family, the farm). Each page has images related to the theme. You place your cursor over the images and hear their names pronounced and see them spelled out in the language you choose.

    Because it’s visually based, these pages can be used by anyone in the world, regardless of your native language.

    Here are the languages they have:

    English (English)
    Italian (Italiano)
    Arabic (عربي;)
    Spanish (Español)
    Portuguese (Português)
    Mandarin Chinese (普通话)
    French (Français)
    Russian (Русский)
    Japanese (日本語 Nihongo)
    German (Deutsch)
    Hebrew (עברית)

    So if you’re interested in learning any of these languages, or improving your skills, check it out!

    -Lisa

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    Mama Lisa’s World News and Multimedia Features

    Thursday, November 30th, 2006

    A significant part of the Mama Lisa sites is a large collection of songs and nursery rhymes from around the world. We currently have about 750 songs from around 90 countries and cultures.

    When you consider how many languages there are in those cultures – that’s a lot of information! In order to make it easier to access all of the songs, we are in the process of converting the sites to a database. The database allow our visitors to search for songs on the site by language, by songs with sheet music, recordings, etc.

    While we’re putting the songs into the database, we’re trying to obtain as much information as possible about each song. So if we can find the tune, we’ll include a midi tune and sheet music. If we find a recording of the song on the internet, we’ll provide a link to the recording. Sometimes we’ll make a recording ourselves. Anything we can do to help you know everything possible about that song.

    If you happen to see any songs on the site that are missing a tune or recording and you know it, we’d be very pleased if you could help us get the tune. We’re able to make midis from sheet music, if that’s what you can send. We’re also happy to post recordings if you’d like to sing the song, play it on an instrument, or even hum it. Really, anything to help others get an idea how to sing or play the song.

    Once the database is complete Mama Lisa’s World will have 98 countries and cultures and over 850 songs. How great is that!

    -Lisa

    UPDATE: The Database is now complete! We have 100 countries and cultures. We’re now working on a Spanish version of Mama Lisa’s World which will feature children’s songs, folks songs and nursery rhymes from around the world with Spanish translations.

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    Portuguese Lullaby – NANA, NENE

    Saturday, October 21st, 2006

    Here’s a lullaby in Portuguese (possibly from Brazil), with an English translation…

    Nana, nenè,
    na casa do vovo,
    vovô no tien cochão,
    o nenè dorme no chão

    Sleep, baby
    At grandpa’s house
    Grandpa doesn’t have a mattress
    The baby sleeps on the ground.

    If anyone knows the tune and can send me a recording, midi or sheet music, please email me. I also welcome information about the origin of this song.

    Thanks!

    Lisa

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    May Day – Labor Day Marches and Rallies Around the World

    Monday, May 1st, 2006

    In an earlier entry, I wrote about the history of Labor Day.

    In case you were wondering, here are some of the countries where demonstrations were held or where Labor Day was in some way honored around the world today (in some cases against the wishes of the government)…

    Russia
    Belarus
    Japan
    Germany
    Italy
    Philippines
    Cambodia
    Indonesia
    Malaysia
    South Korea
    Malta
    Mexico
    France
    Nepal
    Portugal
    Sri Lanka
    Nigeria
    Turkey
    Iran
    Great Britain

    Feel free to comment below about your country’s Labor Day traditions.

    -Lisa

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    Please Send An Endearing Term for Grandma and Grandpa in Your Language

    Wednesday, March 15th, 2006

    Kathy wrote me…

    Dear Mamalisa,

    I was delighted to find your website and will be using it in the future. I am researching translations for the word “grandma” in various languages. I am most interested in the familiar, sweet terms children might call this individual. I am aware that in some cultures this would be a different word for the mother or the father’s side of the family. I have spent hours on Internet, through many websites as well as your website and links. I have thus found: Cajun, Hawaiian, Ukrainian, Italian, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Farsi. I am not clear about Russian or Greek since I am not completely sure of their letters. Now I am certainly not expecting you to do hours of research for my project. But I thought you might be familiar with an easier way for me to accomplish my task.

    For example, I happened on a page called “I Love You” in Various Languages and found 18 pages for “I love you”. Wow! Anyway, whatever help you can give me would be much appreciated.

    Thank you in advance for your assistance.

    Kathy

    If anyone knows any endearing terms for “grandma” and “grandpa”, including any in those languages listed, please comment below.

    Thanks!

    Lisa

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    ________

    Copyright ©2009 by Lisa Yannucci. All rights reserved.
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