Japanese and Swedish Peek-a-boo
By thomas on Dec 8, 2008 in Multilingual Parenting
I’ve mentioned before that I’m raising my son to be multilingual in English, Japanese and Swedish. That’s changed a little bit as Swedish is becoming too difficult to fit in all the time. So really I’m now aiming to raise my son bilingual in English and Japanese with some exposure to Swedish thrown in for fun.
One game that just about every parent plays with their children is “peek-a-boo”. Everyone should know this game, but just in case you don’t, here’s how you play:
- Cover your face with your hands or some other object.
- Say to your baby “Where’s Daddy (or Mommy or whatever)?”
- Reveal yourself and say “Peek-a-boo”.
Once kids get older and smarter, they can cover their faces and do it to you too.
Naturally kids love it. Not just kids in English-speaking families, but all over the world. So I learned how to play Peek-a-boo in Japanese and Swedish. It’s really easy.
Japanese
In Japanese, Peek-a-boo is called いない、いない、ばぁ！ (inai, inai, ba!). You play like this:
- Cover your face with your hands
- Say “inai inai, ba!”, revealing your face on “ba”
“Inai, inai” means something like “not here, not here”. And “ba” just means “boo”.
Here are some videos of random Japanese kids playing Inai Inai Ba!:
Now you can play with your kids too!
Swedish
In Swedish, peek-a-boo is called “Tittut”. You play like this:
- Cover your face with your hands or some other object
- Say “Var är Pappa (or Momma)?”
- Reveal yourself while saying “Tittut!”
“Var är Pappa/Momma?” means “Where is Daddy/Mommy?” “Tittut” means something like “Look!” (from the verb “titta” I think).
Here are some videos of random Swedish people playing Tittut:
How about in your language?
I have a favor to ask. I want to know how to play peek-a-boo in more languages and share it with everyone else. If you speak, or are learning to speak, a language other than English, Japanese or Swedish, post a comment and tell us how to play peek-a-boo in your language.
Related posts:
- Learn Swedish With Online Swedish Radio
- Multilingual Parenting
- Starting Swedish
- Chapter 4 – Swedish Furniture and Katakana Loanwords
Whahaha, the second Japanese video is hilarious!
In Dutch it’s ‘kiekeboe!’ (pronounced kee-ke-BOO). Last year we had a talk in psychology class about peek-a-booing. It appears that kids think they’re invisible when they cover their face. Pretty funny :-).
Ramses | Dec 8, 2008 | Reply
@Ramses: Thanks man! BTW, what do you say before “kiekeboe” (the “where’s daddy” part)?
And yes, those twins are hilarious!
thomas | Dec 8, 2008 | Reply
in polish it’s “akuku”. it means nothing. the “where’s your mommu/daddy part” is “gdzie jest twoja mamusia/ twoj tatus?” but it’s mostly omitted as you can see on the vid http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=RW2LZZq4TYc
they say the only cultural pracice close to being universal is the incest taboo. who knows, maybe you’ve just found another.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest_taboo)
anka | Dec 8, 2008 | Reply
Waar is papa? = Where’s daddy?
Waar is mama? = Where’s mommy?
Ramses | Dec 9, 2008 | Reply
GREAT post! Those twins still have me laughing!
The French say cou cou for peek-a-boo.
Diane | Dec 11, 2008 | Reply
In Lithuania we said:
Kur mama?/Kur tėtė? (where is mum?/where is dad?)
Akuku or bū..!!(pee-a-boo)
Kristina | Jan 14, 2009 | Reply
In korean you say gock-um
Jenn | Apr 15, 2009 | Reply
Aww, all those videos were so cute!
Danielle | Jun 3, 2009 | Reply
In German you say “Wo ist die Mama?/ Wo ist der Papa?”, then “Kuckuck!” or “Hier ist die Mama!/Hier ist der Papa!”. Both is possible.
Paula | Dec 17, 2009 | Reply
I have become intrigued with ‘Peek-a-boo’and surprised how it has been researced in psychology of child development. A most recent awareness at the theological and metaphysical level is that God(whether it be Daddy/Mommy)has been playing ‘peek-a-boo’ with all his/her children throughout our livess. Do we see God as God sees us???
Carmine 3/19/2012
Carmine Tuozzo | Mar 19, 2012 | Reply
I’d love to hear more about your family’s adventures in trilingualism. Please post more!
Sarah @ Baby Bilingual | Jul 2, 2012 | Reply