#classic swedish childrens' show about learning the alphabet

[fishthegenderwitch]

A little child in the store was singing the ABCs song today, and it was great. W was "bubbadoo", L-M-N-O was "Ow-ah Maow".

It got me thinking a Wonder I had never before Wondered: do other languages have an Alphabet Song for teaching the childrens?

And they do!!

Latin-based language songs

Spanish

The first Spanish song that was suggested is Sopa de Letras (“Soup of Letters”) by Gaby Rivero. This song teaches all the letters by imagining a soup with a bunch of food mixed in, with each letter of the alphabet represented by the food (A for arroz, B for bombon, C for col and so on). It’s not as straightforward as the English alphabet song, but it has a fun, very ‘80s music video.

Another song, mentioned by a Babbel video producer from Cuba, is La Marcha de las Vocales (“The March of the Vowels”) by Cri-Crí. This song only teaches vowels, so it’s not quite as useful. It does have the added benefit of describing the shape of each letter, however, which is useful for small children learning to write.

Portuguese

Similar to the second Spanish song, the song that our video producer who grew up in Portugal learned only teaches the vowels. The song is AEIOU from Big Show SIC, a Portuguese children’s variety show from 1995 hosted by singer Ana Malhoa. If you thought the first Spanish song was wild, this one is truly over the top. The video has people in animal costumes running around, children in the stands and a legion of scantily clad dancers. It’s a lot to take in, but you’d probably remember your vowels after watching it.

Polish

Another song that isn’t exactly an alphabet song is Abecadło Z Pieca Spadło (“The Alphabet Dropped from the Stove”) by Julian Tuwim. Based on a nursery rhyme, the song features a lot of the letters, along with a story about how they were damaged when they fell from the stove (the H broke in half, the A dislocated its legs, etc.). It doesn’t teach children the alphabet in a straightforward way, but it’s still a fun song to familiarize kids with the letters and what they look like.

Swedish

The first comprehensive alphabet song we found that sounds nothing like the English alphabet song comes from Swedish. It’s just called the Alfabetslåten (“Alphabet Song”), and it’s from an old children’s show called Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter (“Five Ants are More than Four Elephants”) Two elephants sing the letters to the alphabet, including the four vowels that Swedish have that English doesn’t. Most importantly, it’s pretty catchy.

German

The vast majority of alphabet songs tend to use the tune of the English alphabet song and change them to their needs. This German song is just one example, and it’s called Das ABC-Lied (“The ABC Song”).

The Non-Latin Language songs on here are

Russian

The Cyrillic alphabet is not too different from the Latin alphabet, but it is a major stumbling block for Russian-learners who are just starting out. There are a few possible versions of the song out there, but we chose one from a reliable source: Улица Сезам (you might know it better as Sesame Street). It’s pretty similar to the English alphabet song, but with a different beat and an unfamiliar Muppet.

Chinese

The Chinese languages use over 50,000 characters, which presents a whole new problem. It’s impossible to make a comprehensive song because that would take way too long to sing. The solution is using the 千字文, or the Thousand Character Classic, which is a poem over 2,500 years old that is exactly 1,000 characters long, each used once and collected in rhyming stanzas (so it can, in theory, be sung). While it’s only a fraction of the full written system, the poem provides a useful introduction to written Chinese. The video below shows an excerpt of the poem being painted by calligrapher Cai Xingyi.

Japanese

Japanese only has 46 characters, so there is a song that can capture all of them. Japanese doesn’t have an alphabet, however; they use a mixture of two syllabaries and Chinese kanji (thousands of characters that were taken from Chinese into Japanese). The main 46-syllable hiragana is the best place to start, however, and the song is simple to learn.

Hebrew

Hebrew went from being widely spoken to nearly extinct, and then back to widely spoken again. The language was kept alive for religious reasons, and most people outside Israel likely encounter it during the bar/bat mitzvah process. Having a helpful alphabet song to teach legions of children and pre-teens how to read the language, then, is useful. Fortunately, Jewish singer Debbie Friedman created The Alef-Bet specifically for Hebrew school students.

I must go listen to the Swedish one now.

Please add more if you have them!

[wynne-keyler]

Yes?? xD

En ö = An island

Don't bully Ö, He's a nice letter!!

[mysmall-studies]

(My brutally honest) First impression of Welsh

So a while ago I got an ask where the person who sent it told me I should try to learn Welsh, so here’s my brutally honest first impression on the Welsh language + some site recommendations to those who are interested in learning the language!

Note: This is solely based on MY opinion, please follow your own heart and do what you want to do. 

Background

So I began by looking up what the heck Welsh is, and these are some words from Wikipedia about the origination of the language:

“  Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and the other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. “

and the person who told me to try Welsh was a sweetheart to explain a little bit about it to me too:

“ Welsh is an old Celtic language. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Patigonia . Most people living in Wales can speak English . Only 19% of the population in Wales speaks Welsh , which is a sad fact really . It's a completely different language and you could maybe hear some Welsh by going to google and typing S4C, which is an all Welsh tv channel in the UK but they have a website [...] ”

So apparently there’s only 700,000 + native speakers of Welsh in the UK and only 19 % of Welsh population know Welsh, which I kind of didn’t expect if I compare to their area but I though there would be more outside of the UK that has a Welsh background or something along those lines and that more than half of the Welsh population knew Welsh. 

My impression

So I went onto Google and typed in S4C which the person had mentioned 

And first of all, what’s up with all of the random letters making random words???? This is of course my reaction as a native Swedish and Finnish speaker and fluent in English and a history of studying French (+ random stuff in other languages). I’ve never seen (yes I have) a language with words like this. I can read the letters, since they are in the latin alphabet, but I can’t even guess what the words are supposed to mean. 

So I clicked on the link and okay it looks like a normal website for TV programs. So I clicked on the first program that popped up, which was something called “Dylan ar Dait”. I guess it’s a program about two guys?

Some sort of warning notification popped up

It looks like it’s trying to tell me something about 1. either my adblocker (please don’t bash me for it, I usually have it disabled anyways) or 2. that there’s viewer discretion? I didn’t know so I just clicked the red bar even though I probably should have tried to translate it and check what they were trying to tell me but what the heck’

And honestly the sentences looks like when I press the keys out of frustation to create stuff like: ahsasdjjopa

I later come to realise that it was my adblocker bc I could watch the show if I didn’t disable it

So I watched this episode and honestly, Welsh sounds like German mixed with some Italian mixed with something else I can’t put my finger on (according to me)

So I think the hardest part about this language has to be prononciation? Like how to use intonation? 

So from the little that I’ve learned about this language and now also heard and read (more like seen and be thrown off by): I wouldn’t learn it as of right now, but I am damn curious about how to read it. I also imagine that if you’re able to speak it, then you can talk to your friends in it (if they know it) without having to worry about other people hearing stuff you want to keep private (what a great benefit lol). I really think that if you are interested in it, then learn it! It’s unique and damn it would look good on your CV to understand that (please don’t prioritise things that will benefit you, do stuff that you want to do).

Learning Welsh

So for those who are interested in this language -  I’ve found some resources for you to use:

Duolingo - Classic, but it has Welsh so why not? It’s good to use on the go and for fun

BBC - They have a page (though it’s no longer updated) where you can find some links and materials

Learn Welsh - Great to start off your Welsh with some simple words and content that children will learn when they learn Welsh

Learn Welsh by Welsh Government - Made by their government to begin with, and also has for different ages so you can increase the difficulty

So this is the end of my brutally honest first impression of Welsh

I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope some of you will find Welsh interesting and take on the challenge (and maybe tech me how to read some of the basic words because I’m still all like: what???)

And also: thank you to the person who sent the request to me to try it out!