:-) Actually, I looked 'em up while I was waiting for the entry to post. But I figured it was more in keeping with the rest of the entry as a whole to leave the "humming" in there anyhow.
Hmm. Now I wonder: what's the best-known non-English song among English-as-a-first-language speakers? My first guess is "Frere Jacques", but I may well be extrapolating wildly inaccurately from my own experience. Do most English-speakers learn that in Emglish first? I seem to recall learning it in French first when I was a wee child -- long before I started learning French -- and getting the English translation taught to me almost as an afterthought. Or maybe it'll turn out to be some piece of liturgical music, or opera ... Oh drat; that question's gonna keep me up tonight.
(Nearly the same phenomenon -- though in a different language-I-don't-speak, happened on Monday without seeming so annoying; perhaps because I only know even less than the whole chorus of that one. As I sang to my brother when I found out he didn't know the tune:Riu,
( ... )
I'm tempted to say it's a toss between "Frere Jacques" and "Adeste Fideles" - but I seem to have had a rather skewed early education so other people's mileage almost certainly varies. :)
Frere Jacques was a year-round, um, round, so it was imprinted more strongly and more regularly on me. I definitely remember singing it with other children in pre-school. On the other hand, I was not expected to memorize Adeste Fideles, since it was seasonal and was written in the hymn book and caroling books. I don't know which I was exposed to first, since Mom definitely sang Frere Jacques to/with me before pre-school, and I definitely heard Adeste Fideles at church and from neighborhood carolers.
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Hmm. Now I wonder: what's the best-known non-English song among English-as-a-first-language speakers? My first guess is "Frere Jacques", but I may well be extrapolating wildly inaccurately from my own experience. Do most English-speakers learn that in Emglish first? I seem to recall learning it in French first when I was a wee child -- long before I started learning French -- and getting the English translation taught to me almost as an afterthought. Or maybe it'll turn out to be some piece of liturgical music, or opera ... Oh drat; that question's gonna keep me up tonight.
(Nearly the same phenomenon -- though in a different language-I-don't-speak, happened on Monday without seeming so annoying; perhaps because I only know even less than the whole chorus of that one. As I sang to my brother when I found out he didn't know the tune:Riu, ( ... )
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