Forget about Brother John

Chinese for Children, originally uploaded by zawelski.

(posted by Dave)

...or Bruder Jakob, Fray Felipe, or any of those other European Brothers who are sleeping in while morning bells are ringing. You may not know this, but when one-fifth of the world hears the tune “Frere Jacques”, they think of two mutilated tigers running around in circles. Now that our boys are in Chinese kindergarten, we have no choice but to think the same.

Liang zhi lao hu, liang zhi lao hu
pao de kuai, pao de kuai.
yi zhi mei you yan jing,
yi zhi mei you wei ba
zhen qi guai, zhen qi guai

Two tigers, two tigers
Run so fast, run so fast
One has no ears
One has no tail
Really strange! Really strange!

Indeed.

For an (appropriately cheesy) sing-along version, you can check out our friends at Chinese Pod at the link below, though they do get Frere Jacques a bit confused with Alouette in their intro.

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/two-little-tigers-song