Hämä hämä häkki

[weijie]

My finnish teacher told me hämä hämä häkki, lasten laulu, has many versions in other country. But what is the English version? I have never heard about this lasten laulu.

[onkko]

http://www.grandparents.com/gp/content/ ... pider.html

[Rob A.]

My finnish teacher told me hämä hämä häkki, lasten laulu, has many versions in other country. But what is the English version? I have never heard about this lasten laulu.

I guess your native language isn't English....I think just about all native English speakers learnt this one in kindergarten.... A real hit with the under six year old crowd... It really is one of my few memories from kindergarten.

The teacher probably thought she/he was on safeground using this as a Finnish language teaching aid with English speakers...

[AldenG]

Ah yes, the well-known itchy-bitchy spider.

[Rob A.]

Here it is....a very old recording:



Seems to be a song meant for Finland....lugubrious, full of sisu...and, in the end, the futility of life.... ...(just joking!!!)

[AldenG]

Don't forget the fingers

[silk]

Does the English version only talk about a spider? The Finnish one includes a spider with sisu, a hard working ant, a happy-go-lucky violin playing grasshopper (hmmm... a freeloader?), a mosquito with relentless energy...

[AldenG]

I don't know, I don't recall ever hearing any of it until I saw it in a movie as an adult.

Most Americans can't get beyond the first verse of the national anthem -- if even all of the first. We don't have the attention span. Too much red food dye, they tell us now.