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Turning Japanese -- Sesame Street Meets Japanese Pop in "Hiragana Song"

September 24, 2008

by Dan Bloom

TOKYO(RUSHPRNEWS)09/24/2008--When teenage singer Alyssa Collins of Canada started learning Japanese in high school, she never dreamed she would become an Internet singing sensation for her rendition of "The Hiragana Song"-- but she did.
The song was an international effort with people from the USA, Canada, Britain and Japan joining forces to create and market the song. It is now online here: http://www.goodnightkiss.com/hiragana.html

"My friends are all over it," Collins, who is now a college student, previously told a reporter for the Toronto Sun. "It was pretty cool just to see how far this thing could go and how cool it is."

"And just to see your song on iTunes!" she added.

How did she learn to sing the novelty song in Japanese? She had some good coaching from her parents, both musicians, and, according to those who have listened to the song, she nailed it -- perfectly.

"It wasn't hard to sing, because I've been self-teaching Japanese since 2004," Alyssa told the Sun reporter.

Hiragana is the Japanese alphabet, one might say, although it uses sounds rather than letters. There are about 50 sounds to learn and memorize, and the song was composed and marketed as a learning tool for Westerners who want to familiarize themselves with hiragana and katakana, another Japanese syllaby. Janet Fisher produced the song from her studio in California, and several other musicians contributed their talents to the production. It's been played on radio in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and its website has gotten over 10,000 hits since its inception a few years ago.

What are people saying about "The Hirgana Song"?

''I just love it. Especially the NI-HON-GO! 'shout-out' in the background," said one reviewer in New York. "I could see this track being forwarded like wildfire around the Internet , for the full spectrum of reasons, from sincere to kitsch. Alyssa just nailed it!'
 

"That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time," said another fan in Los Angeles. "I like the sound very, very much. I can just imagine millions of knock-kneed knee-socked blonde-bouffant burdened girls squealing, 'cute' in Japanese."

An art book editor in New York said: "Love it, it's Sesame Street meets Japanese pop. This could be big."
 
A woman in Boston, a Japanese national, said: "The song is very cute.

It is certainly a great idea -- a J-pop song to teach people the very basic phonetics. What a creative idea. It is the kind of thing that basic students of Japanese need."

A musician in Seattle said: "The techno/dance background is absolutely perfect for language studies, as the deep rhythms put a person in a mindset that makes it easy to absorb information. Listening to the song made it much easier to hear the subtle sounds and tones. It's a great way to learn Japanese.

Steve Gilmore, a music critic in London, reviewed the song on his blog and noted:

"Hiragana, just in case you are wondering, is the Japanese syllabi that constitute the language; the building blocks of Japanese. The first listen confirmed pretty much all I had been expecting; a faultless performance and the kind of production values you would have expected from a known producer."

Gilmore added: "It's after living with the track for a few days when it's obvious this is a very serious effort at that elusive 'worldwide'

hit. To be sure to my ears - after some fairly consistent playing - it sounds like the real deal. Moreover, given the market it's aimed at, that kind of lightweight pop is exactly what the market requires.

Alyssa has a surprising maturity about her performance. For me, living with the track is what finally sold me on it, the sheer professionalism of the technical side could only carry it so far. At the end of the day, this is a very catchy, likeable song encased in a classic pop setting and proves to be eminently listenable."

With a recommendation like that, you can't go wrong. If you're thinking of travelling to Japan for business or pleasure, or just to become "lost in translation" the way Sofia Coppolla did in her popular movie of the same title, by all means give Alyssa Collins' song a listen. You'll never think about hiragana in quite the same way again.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dan Bloom lived in Tokyo for five years in the early 1990s, where he learned how to drink sake and nosh on sushi at sidewalk cafes in Shinjuku. He also learned a few words of Japanese and studied hiragana, in fits and starts. Email him at:
danbloom@rushprnews.com

 

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