We are and will be singing songs in many languages. Singing is the act of making musical sounds with one’s voice. We are able to sing in languages in which we don’t necessarily speak. I teach the children to make the appropriate sounds with their voices to pronounce the words correctly. I also teach them the meaning of what they are saying. But, singing in other languages does a few things for us.
1. It teaches us empathy for others trying to sing in our native tongue
2. It teaches us about the sounds other languages make that may not be in our language
3. It “evens the playing field” for our ELL kids
4. It exposes us to more music from other countries, cultures, times in history, etc.
5. English is often a difficult language in which to sing because of our hard consonant sounds, diphthongs and ugly vowels. Other languages lend themselves better to proper singing technique
Here is “O Canada” in French. All of the classes except the Kindergartens have been learning this song. We sing it in French at every assembly. Maybe you would like to practice it at home? Did you know that the original song was only in French?
And our listening program this year will focus on French as we are a bilingual school. Vive le français!