More Nursery Rhymes

Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten May 19, 2006

In order to expose our nine-month old daughter to our native languages (Dutch and Bengali), we have been digging up nursery rhymes and sing-along songs from our childhood memories (way deep!).

Not only did we discover that the melodies that we sang as ours were created in other countries, where they were put to other lyrics and languages altogether.

We also found out that, though most nursery rhymes and children's songs are innocent and cute, as they should be, some are, quite deviously, not. I write "deviously," because as children we sang them without thinking too deeply about the words.

This was brought home to me as I investigated what is behind the lyrics of the Dutch version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, called Altijd is Kortjakje ziek.