12/29/2007 10:48 PM

Symbolic Foods Eaten Around the World for New Years

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, [...]

07/14/2007 01:24 PM

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

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. [...]

01/31/2007 05:11 PM

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

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 [...]

01/06/2007 08:35 PM

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

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. [...]

12/22/2006 10:39 AM

Free Online Language Dictionaries

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 [...]

12/04/2006 10:59 AM

Great Link for Language Learning

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 [...]

10/21/2006 04:15 PM

Portuguese Lullaby - NANA, NENE

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 [...]

05/01/2006 11:59 AM

May Day - Labor Day Marches and Rallies Around the World

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 [...]

03/15/2006 09:25 AM

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

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 [...]