Singing with the Street Children School

Today a volunteer visited the street children program. The children are always very sweet and eager to learn about the volunteers! To enrich the children's sense of culture, the volunteer taught the children the song La Cucaracha, a Spanish song. The children sang beautifully, and were able to recite the song pretty well! This volunteer has been learning Hindi for some time, so he was able to write the words in Hindi script so that they could pronounce the words properly. The children really did a fantastic job with the song, and all laughed merrily when they heard the meaning of the song.

The children have learned a few other songs in different languages as well: Frere Jacques in French, Danish, German, and English (and we even helped them make a Hindi version of the same song!), a Basque nursery song (it begins as Se Se Nak Dira), and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in English. It's so wonderful that children, who otherwise would know no world outside of their street, in their sector, in Delhi NCR, can be exposed to so many different cultures, people, and even languages! The volunteer, who has been learning Hindi, was speaking to them in Spanish (he speaks Spanish at home) so that they could be exposed to the sound of a different language: Afterwards, he was explaining (in Hindi) that his family was originally from Cuba, and he asked the children if they knew what language they speak in Cuba. One of the children confidently responded "Hindi"! :)