Groovi Pauli is back with more groovin’ Chinese tunes! This album is even more diverse and fun than the first one, “Mandarin Chinese Songs for Kids” (2009). Groovi Pauli (a.k.a. Pauli Haakenson) has been writing songs to help young learners acquire Chinese for several years. Presently based in Hong Kong, he says, “This second album grew entirely out of my work teaching Chinese to kids aged between 4-8. Their enthusiasm and willingness to sing and move has inspired me to write even more.” His sophomore effort includes musical genres such as rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz and country borrowing heavily from sampling for the beat. In addition to Groovi Pauli’s voice, other voices you will hear singing in Chinese include his daughter Aoife (pronounced “eefa” aged 9), son Björn (aged 5) and two other special guests. Groovi Pauli has built more ideas for songs out of his experience teaching Chinese to non-native speaking kids. Of course, he has musical influences as well. “I have been inspired by alternative children’s music such as by Dan Zanes and Mr. Ray. The themes in their songs are like other children’s music, but their music is much more interesting to listen to. I found my students react negatively if the songs we use to learn Chinese is too babyish and they will say, ‘this sounds like Barney.’ Then we are in trouble because they will resist learning. But if the song has a beat, like ‘Summertime is here!’ or ‘Turn right, turn left’ the kids are tuned right in. The sampling of rhythms has helped with this. The songs must have a beat.” All lyrics and songs are composed by Groovi Pauli, who records at home. The keyboard/synthesizer is the mainstay of his recordings, but he also lays over live banjo, trumpet and some harmonica over the tracks. You will also hear his vocal harmonies on the tracks. Unlike the first Groovi Pauli album, where most of the songs use Chinese/English translation in the verses, this album has largely steered away from this approach. “Since this second album aims to build on what listeners have learned from the first album, we can use less English as an entry point to the language. I also have learned in the classroom that we need not rely on English or English translation to communicate the meaning in the songs, provided the teacher is focused on communication with the students. For the songs that I have created music videos for, we can enhance meaning through the visuals as well. In my opinion this has worked very for both engagement and comprehension. ” The music videos for learning Chinese just may be the most potent aspect of Groovi Pauli’s work. When coupled with hand or body movements while watching the music videos, students are very engaged. He has found that movement is a bigger part of his teaching now, as he tries to combine four senses as students learn the new songs (their voices as they sing, their ears as they follow along to the beat, their eyes as they watch each song’s original music video, and the physical movement as they follow along to the motions). When introducing the new song “Move!” (track 3) to aged 5-6 students, he was amazed at how quickly students followed along to the motions. “It was as if all they needed was the rhythmic beat, the visuals to follow and they started movin’ and groovin’.” The music videos created for these songs are to be published by Peking University Press in 2010-2011. Other characteristics of Groovi Pauli’s songs you will hear: 1. Vocabulary complexity and sentence length that is appropriate for young learners – These songs build off what is appropriate for learners of this age. Track 7 (“Do you want it or not?”) builds on a basic very useful grammatical phrase and basic food/drink vocabulary words. In a similar way, the lead-off track 1 (“Summertime is here!”) has simple phrases that are appropriate in length and proven in real classrooms as accessible for young learners. 2. Topics of interest – Young learners are interested in topics on this album, such as animals, transportation, food, friends, and activities that they love to do, such as swimming. 3. Daily life connections – There are several songs where students can connect their own experiences to the content, such as track 4 (“Turn right, turn left”) about transportation, track 6 (“I love my family”) about love for family members, track 9 (“My friend”) about friendships at different stages of life, and track 13 (“Weekend plans”) about what kids do on the weekends. 4. Humor - You will hear humor in the songs to help engage the listener, such as through musical stops (“Turn right, turn left”), the use of different voice characterizations (for example of track 13 “Weekend plans”), and through the use of different sounds. Track 8 (“Where do animals live?”) includes humor to describe what animals are found where (i.e. dogs are not found in zoos and monkeys are no found on farms). Groovi Pauli’s second album has four general themes: 1. Activities/weekend plans (track 1 “Summertime is here!” track 2 “I want to swim” and track 13 “Weekend plans”) 2. Movement (Track 3 “Move!” and track 14 “Monsters/aliens”) 3. Opposites (track 4 “Turn right/turn left,” track 11 “big/small,” track 10 “fast/slow”) 4. Animals (track 8 “Where do animals live?” track 11 “big/small,” track 10 “fast/slow”) The remaining tracks do not fit into a general theme, as each song has separate language goals. Track 7 “Do you want it or not?” teaches that extremely useful language pattern. Track 6 “I love my family” introduces/reviews key names of family members such as father/mother/sister/brother. Track 5 “How are you?” describes three ways to respond to this basic question. Groovi Pauli says, “It should probably have been part of the first album, but I didn’t write it until this year, so here it is anyway.” Track 9 “My friend” talks about the importance of friendship and how people of all ages have friends. Finally, the motivational track 15 “Go for it!” encourages students to do their best as they study Chinese, despite its difficulties.