For this week’s Video Fix, TermCoord is proud to present something of a rarity: a video made by the TermCoord team itself.
On the occasion of the upcoming European Day of Languages (26 September), the communication team has prepared a short film showing the practical multilingualism in TermCoord. Our terminologists and trainees come from many cultures and many languages, and in the video they show the most domestic and relatable feature of every single one: children’s counting-out rhymes.
Children in Spain, England, or the Netherlands all have different linguistic experiences, and their rhymes all tell different stories, but there is something eerily common in every single little poem – the nonsensical, rhythmical character, the simple melody, the way all children use it to pick and choose and play games. In that sense, the children’s nature in all of us lets us see the similarities in every culture, whilst simultaneously enjoying our brimming diversity – e pluribus unum, ‘united in diversity’, the ideal of the European Union itself.
It is however important to note that the diversity in languages is not constrained to the official languages of the Union – in our video, TermCoord boasts also Russian and Chinese. The unit is proud of its national and linguistic diversity, which is notable even comparatively to the rest of the institution – partly due to the cooperation with the University of Luxembourg, which sends some of its students (not exclusively EU citizens) attending the terminology course given by TermCoord on short study visits to the unit. The similarities between children’s rhymes across the globe transcend continents and political divide; the unit is more than happy to showcase them as a mark of natural unity in diversity.
The counting-out rhymes are sometimes just playful rhythmical gibberish with no comprehensible meaning; however, sometimes they combine it with a nonsensical story. Below you can find the translations of the rhymes shown in the video – if, of course, they are translatable…
Gibberish is marked with italics.
| 1. Russian | English translation |
| Муравей бежит по тропке,
Muravey bezhit po tropke,
На штанах его заклепки, Na shtanah ego zaklepky,
А в карманах две дыры, A v karmanah dve dyry,
Ты выходишь из игры! Ty vyhodish iz igry! |
An ant is running on a path,
It has rivets on the pants,
It has two holes in the pockets,
You are out of game!
|
| 2. English | |
| Eeny-meeny-miney-mo,
Catch the tiger by the toe, If it squeals, let it go, Eeny-meeny-miney-mo! |
– |
| 3. Dutch | English translation |
| Ienemiene mutte,
tien pond grutten, tien pond kaas, ienemiene mutte is de baas. Maar de baas die is niet thuis, want hij ligt in het ziekenhuis. |
Ienemiene mutte,
ten pounds of grouts, ten pounds of cheese, ienemiene mutte is the boss. But the boss is not at home, Because he is in the hospital. |
| 4. Chinese | English translation |
| 点子点菠萝
Dian zi dian bo luo
羊子下海螺 Yang zi xia hai luo
不知点到哪一个 Bu zhi dian dao na yi ge
就是哪一个 Jiu shi na yi ge |
Pick and pick pineapple
The sheep under the conch
Don’t know which one to pick
It is the one to pick |
| 5. Spanish | English translation |
| Pito, pito,
Gorgorito. ¿Dónde vas tú tan bonito? Por la senda verdadera. Pim, pam, pum, Fuera. |
Pito pito,
Little warble. Where are you going, so cute? Across the real path. Pim, pam, pum, Out. |
| 6. Italian | English translation |
| Ambarabà ciccì coccò
tre civette sul comò che facevano l’amore con la figlia del dottore; il dottore si ammalò: ambarabà ciccì coccò! |
Ambarabà ciccì coccò
Three owls on the dresser That were making love To the daughter of the doctor; The doctor fell ill: ambarabà ciccì coccò! |
| 7. Polish | English translation |
| Wpadła bomba do piwnicy
Napisała na tablicy: S-O-S, głupi pies, Oza-oza, głupia koza. |
A bomb fell into the cellar,
It wrote on the blackboard: S-O-S, stupid dog, Oza-oza, stupid goat. |
| 8. Greek | English translation |
| Α μπεμπα μπλομ, του κιθε μπλομ,
Α μπεμπα μπλομ, του κιθε μπλομ, Μπλιμ μπλομ |
Abebablom, toukitheblom.
Abebablom, toukitheblom. Blim blom. |
The credits for the video are as follows:
Camera and editing: Anna Wawrzonkowska
Counters (in order of appearance):
Svetlana Lukashevich, Yelena Radley, Eveline van Dijk, Maria Pia Montoro, Ting Huang, Ana Bennasar, Anna Wawrzonkowska, Rodolfo Maslias
With special thanks to Anna Manolaki for inspiring the idea and Marie-Paule Laroche for guest appearance, as well as the entire TermCoord team
The video uses original images and clips created inside and around Tower A (including TermCoord’s office), as well as the canteen and the conference room in the Schuman Building in Kirchberg, Luxembourg. The music is Joseph C. Smith’s Orchestra, “Rainy Day Blues”, belonging to public domain.
Communication Team (Anna Wawrzonkowska, Eveline Van Dijk, Ting Huang)
Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament
Luxembourg 2016