Dodo Titit
(Haitian Creole)

Dodo titit*
Si ou pa dodo,
krab la va manje ou
Dodo titit,
krab lan kalalou**

Sleep Little One
(English Translation)

Sleep little one,
If you don’t sleep,
The crab will eat you
Sleep, little one.
Crab in Okra Gumbo**

*Alternatively, this line can be “Dodo ti titit” – “ti” means “small”. Sometimes “mamman” or “papa” is at the end of the line – making it “Sleep mommy’s little one” or “Daddy’s little one”.
**Kalalou means both “okra” and “gumbo”. Kalalou in the Caribbean often have okra and crab in them. Kalalou is sometimes spelled: “calalu”, “calalou”, or “calaloo”. The word comes from Africa.

You can find variations of this lullaby at: Caribbean Living – Dodo ti pitit manman and The Lullabologist – Dodo Titit – with recording.

If anyone would like to share their version, and/or a recording, feel free to in the comments below or by emailing me at lisa@mamalisa.com .

Thanks and enjoy!

Mama Lisa

So, in case you were wondering what it means, TTYL can mean any of the following:

Talk To You Later
Type To You Later
Text To You Later

I find these things to be fun and interesting to learn. What can I say, I’m easily amused!

TTYL

Mama Lisa

My daughter was recently playing on her Gameboy (the handheld gaming system). I said something to her, but she was so absorbed that she completely didn’t hear. So I commented to her friend, who was also there, that my daughter was lost in another world. Her friend asked, “Why? Was she trapped?” I explained that, no, I was just using an expression meaning “when someone is so involved in what they’re doing that they don’t notice anything around them”.

It’s in this type of spirit that the book Butterflies in My Stomach, by Serge Bloch was written. You follow the main character though his first day of school. It’s full of idiomatic expressions that are illustrated literally. For example, the kid has butterflies in his stomach – so there’s an ink drawing of the kid with actual butterflies in his stomach.

Many of these expressions are funny on their own. Children love the expression, “It’s raining cats and dogs.” Bloch has a page where cats and dogs are raining down from the sky. It’s a hoot for kids to see this actually illustrated in a book.

The book gives you a chance to discuss these unique expressions with your child, in a funny way.

Below is a quaint poem I found called “My Mother”. It was written by Ann Taylor (1783 –1866). She’s the sister of Jane Taylor, the author of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Ann and Jane published books of rhymes and poems together.

The illustrations below were done by Walter Crane. Here’s what Crane wrote about it in 1910:

“My Mother” is mid-Victorian-just after crinolines had gone out-but mothers are always in fashion, bless them…

Crinolines are so old-fashioned that many of us in the 21st century are no longer familiar with the word! Crinolines were hoop petticoats worn under skirts to give them a wide round shape. They were often made out of steel to support and widen the look of the skirt. Ladies, let’s all be glad we’re not too familiar with this word!

So here’s the poem with Cranes sweet illustrations…

My Mother

Who fed me from her gentle breast,
And hush’d me in her arms to rest,
And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
My Mother.

When sleep forsook my open eye,
Who was it sung sweet hushaby,
And rock’d me that I should not cry?
My Mother.

Who sat and watched my infant head,
When sleeping in my cradle bed,
And tears of sweet affection shed?
My Mother.

When pain and sickness made me cry,
Who gazed upon my heavy eye,
And wept for fear that I should die?
My Mother.

Who dress’d my doll in clothes so gay,
And taught me pretty how to play.
And minded all I had to say?
My Mother.

Who taught my infant lips to pray,
And love God’s holy book and day.
And walk in Wisdom’s pleasant way?
My Mother.

And can I ever cease to be
Affectionate and kind to thee,
Who was so very kind to me?
My Mother

Ah, no! the thought I cannot bear;
And if God please my life to spare,
I hope I shall reward thy care,
My Mother.

Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My Mother.

When thou art feeble, old, and gray,
My healthy arm shall be thy stay,
And I will soothe thy pains away.
My Mother.

And when I see thee hang thy head,
‘Twill be my turn to watch thy bed.
And tears of sweet affection shed,
My Mother.

For God, who lives above the skies,
Would look with vengeance in His eyes,
If I should ever dare despise
My Mother.

[Note from Mama Lisa: Taylor later softened the last verse, changing it to the following.]

For could our Father in the skies
Look down with pleased or loving eyes,
If ever I could dare despise
My Mother.

PS

Here are some other posts about Mother’s Day, including other poems:

Monique from France (of Mama Lisa’s World en français) came to visit me and my family earlier this month. While my husband and I waited for her to arrive at the airport, I remembered my days living in France. There, when people first see each other they faire la bise, which means “do the kiss”. The most common way to faire la bise is one kiss on each cheek. I clued my husband in on this custom. He was surprised and said, “Well, at least she’s a woman!”

When first meeting someone here in the US, at least in New York, most people will shake hands. Some women don’t follow this custom, but most younger women do. Most people in the business world shake hands when meeting a business associate – whether for the first time, or even if they’ve met before. But if two people work in the same office, they generally wouldn’t shake hands every day.

If you’re greeting a person you know, like a friend who you’ve seen recently, you’d probably just say hi. If it’s a family member, you might kiss them once on the cheek. If it’s a friend or family member who you haven’t seen for a while (or might not see again for a while) you might give them a kiss and an upper body hug. This would generally be between either two women, or a man and a woman, or sometimes two men who are related to each other (like a father and son).

I asked Monique for a clarification of the greeting customs in France. Here’s what she said…

The custom at a formal business meeting is shaking hands. (We wouldn’t kiss our boss.)

With friends and family, we’d usually give 2 kisses. In some places it’s 3 kisses, in other places, like Paris, it’s 4 kisses. But I couldn’t find a map of France with different colors to show how many kisses they give in each town!

We call it faire la bise even if there are several kisses. Une bise means a smack on the cheek. Un baiser means a kiss that refers more to a lovers’ kiss. (Take care: as a verb, it means something way more than a kiss!)

One kiss in France usually means a very close relationship, usually romantically involved.

We kiss, or faire la bise, “all the time”. That is, every day, if we meet every day. But only once a day.

This is between two women or a man and woman. Men usually shake hands or hug and pat each other’s shoulders. If they’re father and son, or close friends who haven’t seen each other for a long time, they would kiss.

In some families, people even kiss each other’s cheeks when saying good morning and good night.

I also noticed, when I was in New York, that you don’t hug the same way. Yours would rather be a “shoulders hug”. I mean that you push the top of the body (head and shoulders) forwards and you hug. We do that only when very moved, like at funerals and long time departures. For us, all the upper part of the body sticks together in the hug. I personally can only do that if the emotion is strong enough = we share a very close relationship.

When I introduced Monique to my parents, I told them about giving one kiss on each check, as is the custom of French people. That’s how they greeted Monique (and vice versa) the first time they met.

I asked Monique if she had met my parents under normal circumstances (that is, without me having discussed greeting customs beforehand) would she have kissed them twice on the cheeks (since she sort of knew them through me), or would she only have shaken their hands. Here’s what Monique said:

About meeting your parents: given that they’re your parents, I could have done either (shaken their hands or kissed them on each cheek) when meeting them, because we’d never met before.

Actually, it depends on what you feel.

According to the way I “felt” about them as people, independently of the fact that they’re your parents, my first “feeling” would have been to kiss them twice when meeting, and when leaving. But we step here into personal relationships, besides the customs.

There is some “grey” area about customs in general. They can be interpreted differently depending on the region and also the individual.

One thing is sure, be mindful when greeting an individual from another culture. That one friendly kiss we’d give to friend in New York, would signal something more romantic in Paris.

You’re welcome to comment below about greeting customs where you live.

Many thanks to Monique for her clarification of French greeting customs.

-Lisa

Hi,

I found your website and it’s very interesting, learning a lot I didn’t know, in terms of where certain songs come from. However can you assist me? I am trying to work out a song about Timbuktu. It’s not the American version either. I believe it’s possibly old English or Australian. From memory it’s about a voyage and they’re going to Timbuktu, but it never really says where Timbuktu is, as they are always looking for it. I am Australian, heard this song in around grade 1, am 28 now but can’t remember and it’s driving me batty, lol.

Hope you can help. Thank you.

Cheers, Nurcan

This sounds very familiar to me, yet I can’t find it anywhere.

I do know that To go to Timbuktu, means to travel to the ends of the earth, or the most distant place you can imagine.

Timbuktu is a town in Mali in west Africa, on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. It was the one meeting place of the people of north Africa and the south.

It was established around 1100 AD by the Tuareg, a nomadic people of the Sahara. The name Timbuktu comes from the dialect they spoke, also called Timbuktu. It’s a dialect of a Berber language called Tamasheq.

Timbuktu was a major trading center for gold, salt and slaves, from the year 1200 AD, until at least the second half of the 16th century.

If anyone is familiar with the song Nurcan is looking for, please comment below.

Thanks!

Lisa

UPDATE: Nurcan wrote me again and posted the song in the comments below. It’s the Australian version of “The Sailor Went to Sea”.

For instance, in English, if it’s pouring out, you can say, It’s raining cats and dogs. If there’s thunder, some people say God is bowling. At least that’s said to little kids.

You can also say, It’s raining buckets. That’s interesting because in French, there’s the same expression, Il pleut à seaux.*

The French also have the saying, Il pleut comme vache qui pisse. In English, that’s… It’s raining like a cow that’s pissing.

More politely, the French would say, Il tombe des cordes. That expression is literally, It’s falling ropes, or we’d say, Ropes are falling.

There are also expressions for more violent rain. In Spanish there’s, Caen chuzos de punto. Which means, Spears are falling point first. Similarly, in French there’s, Il tombe des hallebardes. That means, Halberds are falling. A halberd is a weapon that was used during the 14th and 15th centuries. It has a spiky axe on the end of a pole. You can see halberds in the image below. They sort of look like falling rain.

Finally, in Occitan (a language spoken in parts of southern France, Spain and Italy) they say, Tomba de rabanelas. That means, Wild radishes are falling. They also say, Tomba de pèiras de molin – Mill stones are falling.

Feel free to comment below about expressions concerning rain that are said in cultures you’re familiar with.

Many thanks to Monique of Mama Lisa’s World en français for telling me about some of the expressions about rain in French, Spanish and Occitan.

Lisa

Come visit the blog category about rain for some songs and rhymes about rain.

*UPDATE ABOUT “RAINING BUCKETS”:

Monique later wrote me…

Spaniards also say, “Llueve a cántaros” to say “it’s raining buckets”. It literally means the same thing. Portuguese have the same expression about buckets, “Está a chover a cântaros” = it’s raining buckets. Italians have “piove a catinelle”, which means “it’s raining basins/bowls”.

Podcasts are one of these tools. Podcasts are audio recordings that are available over the internet. You can either download them in mp3 format and then listen to them from your computer or iPod, or you can listen to them “live”, streaming right from the net.

I’ve been working on improving my French. One new French podcast I’ve found is called Learn French by Podcast. The podcast is “moderated” in English, but a native French speaker talks for a minute or so in French. Then, what was said is often clarified in English. Then it’s repeated in French.

This works well for me as I understand most of what they say, but there might be a word or two I don’t remember. It gives me a chance to recall it myself and sometimes it’s clarified later in the program. They also have a PDF document you can download that goes along with the podcast.

Devon, who works at Knock Knock English, has a podcast that’s geared for Japanese children who are learning English. In the podcasts, Devon speaks in English, and his co-worker Ayako, speaks in Japanese. My guess is that these podcasts would also work well for an English person who’s learning Japanese, as almost everything seems to be said in both languages.

Last, but not least, my husband, Jason Pomerantz of Fiddle and Burn, recently finished recording a podcast of the classic children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This is a great tool if you’re trying to learn English. You can download the book at Project Gutenberg and read along while you listen to the story. It’s broken down by chapter, so you don’t have to listen to the whole book all at once!

It’s a great book in its own right, so even if your first language is English, you’ll probably enjoy hearing it.

Feel free to recommend any podcasts you like in the comments below.

Happy listening!

Lisa

I looked up Gesundheit, and found that it’s also said as a “cheers” before drinking with someone. It’s literally “to your health”.

The Gesundheit that’s said after sneezing comes from a longer phrase, Gesundheit ist besser als Krankheit, which means, “Health is better than sickness”. It’s probably rooted in the fear that someone might be sick if they’re sneezing.

All of this talk about sneezing helped me remember what my Italian-speaking grandfather used to say. He’d say, alla salut (it sounded like “ah salut”), meaning “to health”. He’d say Alla salut both after someone sneezed and as a “cheers” before drinking.

So, to all of you … Gesundheit and alla salut!

Lisa

P.S. Feel free to comment below about what’s said in your country as a cheers, and after someone sneezes.