#fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter

[kattahj]

Nostalgia for my Swedish followers, and also informative for my international followers if you want to learn a Swedish alphabet song!

[saarahrussooo]

Är fem myror verkligen fler än fyra elefanter?

in what way

[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!

[orsakullan]

Julkulor Unicef - Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter & Jan Lööf.

Julkulor Unicef – Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter & Jan Lööf.

[alltingfinns]

Hur är myrorna fastbundna? Kan de befrias utan livshotande skador? Eller skulle spårvagnens framfart över dem vara en mer smärtfri ”befrielse”?

en spårvagn är snabbt påväg mot ett spår med fyra elefanter fastbundet på det, du kan dra i en spak och dirigera vagnen till ett annat spår med fem myror fastbundet istället, en av dessa grupper kommer garanterat dö oavsett ditt val. drar du spaken? fem myror lär vara fler än fyra elefanter men är det mer?

det var iallafall slutsatsen av en förbigående tanke jag fick häromdan klockan tre på natten gällande om fem myror var ett trolley problem

Måste vara väldigt starkt rep om det ska hålla fast 4 elefanter

[dagenssvenska]

🇸🇪

[stolligaseptember]

ibland undrar jag hur fem myror har lyckats vara så universellt populär genom tiderna, men sen så minns jag guldkorn som det här

[vydumaj]

I was exposed to flight of the conchords songs at a young age and that’s why I am the way I am

[laziestgirlintown]

Swedish tried "kanelbulle" - cinnamon roll - before more-or-less going with "snabel-a" - elephant trunk-a

Nearly entirely certain it's because of this kids' tv show everyone grew up with

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Jag undrar om Allt och lite till var 2000-talets version av Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter

Mina två underlag för detta är att båda har en trio; I Fem myror är det två män och en kvinna, och i Allt och lite till är det två kvinnor och en man. Och att båda har sångnummer och sketcher som förekommer under avsnitten.

Men utöver det är det olika - Fem myror fokuserar på att räkna och stava, medan Allt och lite till fokuserar på samhällsfrågor.

[svensknostalgi]

Jag insåg att det kanske är lätt att missa att jag har en sida med länkar till en del program som finns på Öppet Arkiv, speciellt om man är inne via appen. Så, därför kommer här min länklista som en post! Finns ju naturligtvis mycket annat också än det jag tagit med här. Vissa program har hela säsonger utlagda och andra bara några få avsnitt. Jag har kollat igenom en del av länkarna och allt verkar vara OK, men kan vara några länkar som blivit inaktuella sen jag uppdaterade listan sist.  

A Abrakadabra | 

B Bamse | Bamse - Världens starkaste björn | Barnen på Luna  | Beppes godnattstund | Björnes magasin | Bullen | Byhåla  D Dagens visa

E Ebba och Didrik | Emil i Lönneberga 50 år | Eva och Adam | Evas sommarplåster | Evas vinterplåster  F Felix och Fenix | Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter  G Grynet på vift | Grynets show  H Historien om den lilla farbrorn | Häxan Surtant I Ika i rutan L Lennart Hellsings ABC | Lilla Anna och långa farbrorn | Lilla spöket laban | Lilla Sportspegeln | Lillstrumpa och syster Yster | Laura Trenter 

M Macken | Madicken | Mamma Mu | Min vän Percys magiska gymnastikskor | Min vän shejken i Stureby | Mumintrollet | Mysteriet på Greveholm  P Pelle Svanslös | Pip Larssons  | Pippi Långstrump S Sagan om den lilla farbrorn | Sagoboken | Sagostunden | Salve | Skymningssagor | Supersnällasilversara och Stålhenrik T Tillbaka till Vintergatan | Trazan Apansson och Banarne | Trolltider  V Vi i Femman |  Vi på Saltkråkan Z Zvampen

[organizedstudy]

Julkalendern

December is approaching and that means julkalendern is about to start! It’s a beloved tradition among Swedes of all ages and really helps kickstart the Christmas spirit in this cold country. 

What is julkalendern?

Julkalendern (the Christmas calendar) is a Swedish TV series televised each year on SVT 1 (Swedish state owned TV) with one episode per day from the 1st to the 24th of December (since Christmas Eve is the big celebration day in Sweden). Each episode is about 15 minutes long and is showed on TV in the morning (7.15 during the week and 8.45 on the weekend) and in the evening (18.45). Each year there is a completely new series but it’s often about kids having to save Christmas. As a child I remember it was such an important tradition to watch it in the morning before school and it really created this nice and cozy Christmas feeling. There is also a radio version with another story but I personally never listened to that and I think it’s generally less popular. There’s also a paper calendar that you open after the program every day. 

My personal experience with julkalendern

The first julkalender I personally can remember watching is Håkan Bråkan in 2003 (I was 5 then) and I remember I also had the computer game. A lot of my friends my age remember the one from 2002 Dieselråttor och sjömansmöss but I only remember one episode very vaguely. I think I watched every episode of the julkalender every year until 2012 Mysteriet på Greveholm - Grevens återkomst (when I was 14 because after that you’re not really in the target audience anymore). I also watched it last year 2018 Storm på Lugna gatan because I was living in Italy and it was one of the few things that really gave me the Swedish Christmas feelings while being abroad. 

Where can I watch julkalendern?

If you’re in Sweden you can watch some julkalendrar on öppet arkiv. You can watch this year’s julkalender from anywhere in the world (I think, since it hasn’t started yet I don’t know for sure but Swedes abroad probably would be very upset if they couldn’t so there’s a big chance you can)! 

History of julkalendern

1960 - Titteliture - the first installment of julkalendern. It started the first of advent (which was the 27/11 that year) but since there was no TV on Wednesdays it still had 24 episodes. 

1967 - Gumman som blev liten som en tesked - an iconic one, has been voted among the best ones ever, got a reprise in 1976

1969 - Herkules Jonssons storverk - the first julkalender in color 

1971 - Broster Broster - the name changed from adventskalendern to the current julkalendern

1973 - Mumindalen - it aired on SVT 2, a channel not everyone had a the time and the TV version wasn’t the same as the radio version. Also Moomin so we love that 

1977 - Fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter - taken from the original series (which is an I C O N I C show) aired in 73 and 74. Taught the alphabet and therefor had 28 episodes (since the Swedish alphabet has 28 letters). It didn’t go in alphabetical order though. 

1988 - Liv i luckan med julkalendern - the first time julkalendern was sent live (the second time was in 92) since there were competitions the kids could call in and win stuff from.

1991 - Sunes jul - based on the Sune books (also iconic for my generation), the same family is also used in the 2002 julkalender Håkan Bråkan but this time from the perspective of the younger brother Håkan.

1996 - Mysteriet på Greveholm - the first one to have its own website and game. The 2012 julkalender was a sequel of this one. One of the most popular and iconic julkalender ever. 

2014 - Piratskattens hemlighet - very controversial since it was set on a sunny island and there wasn’t a drop of snow and everyone was upset about that because it didn’t feel like a true julkalender.

2015 - Tusen år till julafton - based on the series Historieätarna (which is great), there is a legal twist about the rights of the program and therefor it doesn’t have a DVD version. 

[triplestaff]

Bästa serien!

Heterosexuella kompisgäng: *blond tjej* *chad* *den roliga* *Kyle* *brunhårig tjej* *frat kille*

HBTQIA+ kompisgäng: *twink som faktiskt läser manualen* *taxigubbe vars fru blivit kidnappad* *allvetande varelse i en guldfisk* *blåklädd bestämd rymdkapten* *gul robot som kan räkna* *göteborgare vars personlighet är att hen är amerikan* *nedfryst kosmonaut från Sovjet Unionen* *Femman*

[mygukkie]

fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter

[stolligaseptember]

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo i just realized what the new local natives logo reminds me of

the fem myror är fler än fyra elefanter letters