Tag Archives: children’s song

Morning Song – Korea

Nationality: Korean American
Age: 52
Occupation: Business Owner
Residence: Newport Coast
Performance Date: 2/17/17
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Original Script:

아침해가 떴습니다

자리에서 일어나

이빨 닦고 세수하고

학교에 갑시다

 

Phonetic (Roman) Script:

achimhaega tteossseubnida

jalieseo il-eona

ippal dakkgo sesuhago

haggyoe gabsida

 

Translation:

The morning sun has arisen

Get up from bed

Brush your teeth, wash your face

Let’s go to school

 

My mom was born in South Korean, but moved to America when she was 16 years old. She told me that she had learned this song about 45 years ago when she was in first grade. She isn’t sure if they still teach this song, or if it is something that all schools taught or just hers. Everyone was taught to sing this song during music class. Music is a great way to reach students; it can help discreetly teach important lessons. My mom said students were taught to sing this song in particular as a way to encourage them to get up for school and help them develop a morning routine. When I was little, we used to sing this song together all the time. It was actually really effective in getting me out of bed, and made it more entertaining to get ready in the morning by singing along with her.

Sma Grordorna – Swedish Midsummer Celebration Song

Nationality: Swedish
Age: 21
Residence: Gothenburg, Sweden
Performance Date: April 24, 2017
Primary Language: Swedish
Language: English

Informant:

Elliot Danielsson is a 21 year old man from Gothenburg, Sweden. This is his favorite folk song from his native Swedish culture. He also says that almost everyone in his town “and probably most of Sweden” knows this song and sings it during their Midsummer Celebration.

Folk Song:

Små grodorna, små grordorna

är lustiga att se.

(Repeat)

Ej öron, ej öron, ej suansar

hava de.

(Repeat)

What the song is about:

Elliot: “It’s…uh…kinda hard to give a straight translation, but it’s basically about…It’s small frogs without tails or ears, which makes their lives very difficult, but they are still full of joy and love dancing around a tree. It basically shows how even though we all may live tough lives, we can still live our lives with happiness and joy.”

Context:

Elliot: “It is most often performed at any celebration that whatever Swedish town is putting on the…uh…celebration. Kids, like, love singing it during the celebration, and adults join in too.”

My thoughts:

Elliot also added that this Midsummer Celebration is comparable to America’s Christmas in regards to popularity, and one of the biggest parts (and probably my favorite part) of our Christmas traditions is Christmas music. Therefore, this song that is connected with a major holiday is very interesting to me because I did not know that other cultures’ holidays also often had music that went along with them.

Morbid Jingle Bells

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Ramon, CA
Performance Date: 3/20/2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

I was first taught this song at the age of 10 while at a ski lodge in Lake Tahoe:

Dashing through the snow, On a pair of broken skis

O’er the hills we go, Crashing into trees

The Snow is turning red, I think I’m almost dead

I woke up in the hospital with staples in my head, Oh! 

Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Santa’s almost dead!

Rudolph brought an atom bomb and blast it on his head, Oh! 

Barbie doll, Barbie doll, tried to save his life,

But G.I. Joe from Mexico (??) and stabbed him in the head! 

The entire some makes absolutely no sense, grammatically or logically, but it was catchy and as children it was easy to latch onto because American pre-teens have a tendency to want to appear grown-up by pretending to be unfazed by gruesome ideas. Also, the people I was friends with at the age of 10 all spoke English as a second language, so we never noticed how ungrammatical it was until years later. There are in fact other versions of the song with similar violent vibes, but usually only the first verse (before Jingle Bells) is the same. I tried to look up any instances of this that appear in media, but all I found was that this morbid version is actually very widespread.

In December 2014, I heard a few lines from this version of the song while on vacation in Reno, sung by two giggling Chinese-American girls between the ages of 7 and 10. I had always thought that this was something my friend AZ had made up back in 2003, so I tracked him down to find out where he’d heard it.

AZ told me that he had heard it while in art class from GT, who I happen to now know. He was singing the song for attention at the time, but the lyrics he knows were grammatical, as it removes the “and” in the last line, AZ just remembered it wrong when he sang it back. When I asked him where he’d heard it, he only remembered that it was from Minnesota, but no longer remembers the details of who sang it at him and the circumstances under which he learned it.

Oh Alice

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: high school teacher
Residence: San Jose, CA
Performance Date: April 26, 2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“One of the things I remember about growing up was that my mom would sing me funny songs and after she would sing them she would crack up. Even though my family experienced a lot of loss and pain, it was always great to hear my mom’s laugh. One of the songs she used to sing was about Alice. When she sang it she thought it was so funny, but it would scare me. I was a little girl and I thought I might go down the drain!”

The lyrics are as follow:

Alice, where are you going?

Upstairs to take a bath

Her shape is like a toothpick

Her head is like a tack

Oh my goodness, oh my soul there goes Alice down the hole!

Oh Alice, where are you going?

An audio recording of Gloriadele Guzman (the mother of the informant, referenced above) singing the song has been provided: Oh Alice

I collected this song from my mother. It was fun for me because I also remember my grandmother singing me this song when I was a little girl. I had always thought it was a song my grandmother had made up but I found some other versions of the song online. My grandmothers version is slightly different. Some of the other version include more details that has caused some people to infer that the song is actually about Alice in Wonderland.

For one of the other versions of this song please see: http://www.rahelmusic.net/lyrics-kidsongs.html

Marco in the Meadows

Nationality: Slovenian
Age: 52
Occupation: grant writer
Residence: San Jose, CA
Performance Date: 2014-04-10
Language: Slovenian, English, German, Serbian

“Marco skače, Marco skače

po zeleni trati,

Aj aj ajajaj

Po zeleni trati.”

Translation:

“Marco is jumping

over the green meadows

aj aj ajajaj

over the green meadows”

This is a traditional Slovenian nursery rhyme, one that I was raised listening to as my mother sang it to me as a child. She said that it was a song generally sung with many children who held hands and danced in circles. The informant has no information as to its origin or its meaning, though the reference to meadows suggests a more rural origin.