Repeat After Me...

After my classes yesterday, one of the 2nd year teachers came to me asking about onomatopoeia for animal sounds. This is always an interesting exercise. He had a list of animals and understood which animals said what but he wasn't sure of the context of the sound. What did it "neigh" sound like when I said it? So I gladly went through the list and did some animated versions of the classics like, "Bow-wow" "Quack" "Moo" and so on. He asked if I could go to his 2nd year classes to do the same thing I'd just done.

So this morning I joined this teacher's class. I went toward the end of the period and the students weren't expecting me. I walked in and immediately everyone went "oooooooooo!" in unison. As if I'd just performed a jump over the Grand Canyon on a unicycle while blind folded with my hands tied behind my back... "Mike, what animal makes the sound 'ribbit ribbit' the teacher asked." "A frog." Immediately the students gasped and erupted into applause. Why? They had just gone over some of the animal sounds and didn't actually believe frogs said "ribbit ribbit." So we went over some basic sounds... like "Bam" "Crunch" "Pow" "Kaboom." They would all say "oooooh!" or giggle after each one.

Then we moved onto the animal sounds. First a Japanese student would have to tell me the animal sound in Japanese then I'd say it in English. After the first one, a pig sound, I said "Oink oink oink." The students giggled. Then the teacher said "Please, repeat after Mike." It became silent. "OINK OINK OINK!" I said in a gunty pig voice. "oink. oink. oink." the students whispered in shy monotone whispers. "OINK! OINK! OINK!" I said again prompting them to throw a little grease on their version. They started to warm up. We went through dog, cat, crow, rooster (cock-a-doodle-doo will always get laughs...), sheep, horse, cow... it was good times.

Then on the back of their sheet was a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin hocks a loogy. The sounds were written out like this...

"NNNGKGKK" for snorting some snot into his through.
"HOCCCHHH" for coughing it up into his mouth then
"PATOOOEY" when he spits it sound.

It was hard to do this without making an actual loogy in my mouth but I did it.

The snorting was hilarious and of course, a the students repeated after me...
If you want to see something funny, I highly recommend getting a class full of straight cut Japanese high school students academically repeating the sound of someone hocking a loogy without smiles on their faces... it's hilarious.

So what are the sounds for Japanese animals?

Cow -Moo moo (Pronounced Moe-moe)
Horse - Hihiin (Pronounced Hee-heeeen)
Pig - Buu buu (Pronounced Boo boo)
Mouse - Chuu chuu
Cat - Nyaa nyaa
Rooster -Koke kokko
Frog - Gero Gero or Kero kero
Dog - Wan wan
Crow - Kaa kaa
Sheep - mee mee (Pronounced Meh-meh)

Japanese sounds get even more interesting because Japanese have expressions for sounds for that don't actually make sounds really...

They have onomatopoeias that are often used as verbs for feelings like happiness, sadness, different kinds of smiling...
The feeling if something soft, hard, clothing that's too big. There hundreds if not thousands of these sounds...

Buka buka (booka booka) is the sound if clothing that's a bit too big. Like if you wore shoes that are too big or pants that don't fit.
Fua fua (foo-ah foo-ah) is the sound for something that's really soft and fluffy like a really soft pillow or fluffy angel food cake or something
Niko niko (neeko neeko) is a happy smile
Niya niya (Neeya neeya) is the term for a grin, a kind of evil-ish smirk I think.
Peko peko is the term for when you're hungy

there are so many of these, I hear new ones all the time and I think they're a really interesting way to express feelings or textures or whatever it is you're trying to convey...