This Spanish song for kids, El telefonito, is by Yola Polastry. Yola is a very famous children’s performer from Peru. She had several popular television shows and her songs are considered children’s classics. The song is about the telephone and was written long before we all had cell phones. Kids still like it though and seem to relate to the bla, bla, bla of many phone calls.
The song is mostly dialog and repeats several phrases used on the phone. It is an opportunity to talk about the different ways of answering the telephone in different countries and other common phrases like ¿De parte de quién? and ¿Se encuentra?. The song also provides good examples of soy yo and the way the third person is used on the phone. The lyrics are below.
You can hear El telefonito on YouTube and it is available to download from iTunes for $0.99. The version on YouTube is missing the second verse, where the primo portugués calls. The version in iTunes has all the verses.
Listen to the Spanish song for kids, El telefonito, here.
Rin, Rin, Rin
Aló, ¿quién es? ¿Quién habla, por favor? ¿Quién está en la bocina?
Aló, ¿quién llama para acá?
Aló, soy yo. Te habla tu mamá.
Te llamo para decirte que tienes que estudiar.
coro:
El telefonito es una necesidad, llamada tras llamada y bla bla bla bla bla.
El telefonito es una necesidad, llamada tras llamada y bla bla bla bla bla.
Rin, Rin, Rin
Aló, ¿quién es? ¿Quién habla, por favor? ¿Quién está en la bocina?
Aló, ¿quién llama para acá?
Aló, soy yo, tu primo portugués,
El dueño de un abasto para decirte que tiene más café.
(coro)
Rin, Rin, Rin
Aló, ¿quién es? ¿Quién habla, por favor? ¿Quién está en la bocina?
Aló, ¿quién llama para acá?
Aló, eh Yola, te habla tu vecino.
Quisiera preguntarte en dónde está Paulita.
(coro)
Rin, Rin, Rin
Aló, soy yo, llamando a San Francisco.
Con calma estoy marcando el 4 44.
Uuo, está ocupado.
Uuu, otra vez.
Uuu
(coro)
Andrew
Aug 19, 2012
“bocina” means “horn”, “loudspeaker”, or “mouthpiece”, so is this like the equivalent of “So-and-so’s on the horn for you”? A bit of an old-fashioned way of saying that in English, but still something I’ve heard before, I believe it originated in the military hence the reason you hear it used in a lot of older military TV shows and movies like MASH, e.g. “I’ve got Colonel Potter on the horn for you, sir.” So is this the Spanish equivalent or something else entirely? In this context is it used to mean “horn” as a slang term for telephone, or does it mean “mouthpiece” as in “So-and-so is in the mouthpiece”?
Just curious, hoping someone would know. Thanks Jenny, interesting post.