English Time - Hallelujah

“What does Hallelujah mean?”, I (Jenny) asked. After practicing “Happy New Year!” in English and Korean, counting from 1-10 (easy) and 10-1 (not so easy), and then reading them the suspenseful ;) kids’ story, “Ten Little Ladybugs” (thanks Stoutamores, they loved it!), I posed the students at Juhee's preschool this question and received very unexpected answers. :) “It’s a nice day!” and “Sunshine!” were just a couple of them.

Each month, Juhee’s preschool has 4-5 new songs that they teach to the students. At the end of previous month, all parents receive a plethora of paperwork which includes the sheet music for these songs. I guess so that the parents can familiarize themselves with the songs their kids are being taught at school? I don't know. Anyway, :) one of the songs for January, was “Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord”.

(This is part of the standard paperwork that I receive monthly from Juhee's preschool. The top left song is the one I sang with them. The song underneath is about mochi. :) The one on the top right is called the "Calendar March" (as in ka-len-da ma-chi) and goes through the months. The one below it, is about kite flying. If you look really closely (or click on the pic to enlarge), then you can see my notes. The word for kite is the same as that of octopus. :/)

As I know this song in English (obviously ;)) and Korean as well, I decided to sing this with them during my English Times with the three classes this month. It was a great way for me to teach them the meaning of the word Hallelujah, a word that they often hear in a Christian preschool (a group of about 40 moms sang the whole Hallelujah Chorus for the 3 Christmas services!) but don’t know the meaning of. I told the teachers in advance and by the time I went to do English Time with the three classes on the 25th and 30th, they knew the song well. We sang the “Hallelu/jah” parts together and then I sang the parts in the different languages. The kids and teachers were fascinated. I asked them which parts of the song were the same and which parts were different.

(Close up of the Hallelujah song. We only sang the first verse together. After the class, a couple of kids pointed out to me that there's a second verse too... =D)

And now, hopefully, they’ll always know what “Hallelujah” means. Hopefully one day, they will truly praise the Lord when they hear/say/sing it. Small steps, small seeds. :)