Go green and learn songs in Chinese about the environment! “The Green Album” is the latest release from Groovi Pauli & Friends. Sing along with their call and response songs and learn Chinese phrases about recycling, conserving water, protecting forest animals, and saving sharks from being used in shark fin soup! Groovi Pauli (a.k.a. Pauli Haakenson) has been using songs and music videos to teach Chinese as a second language to young children for years. With the help of his family, they have recorded three previous albums including "Celebrations in Chinese 4 Kids" (2012), "More Chinese Songs for Kids" (2010) and their debut album, "Mandarin Chinese Songs for Kids" (2009). In addition to Groovi Pauli's voice on the songs, you will also hear his daughter Aoife (pronounced “eefa”) and son Björn. Nephew Hans helps on the "chat about the lyrics" tracks placed after each song, on which they chat and explain the meaning of the lyrics in English and Chinese. For “The Green Album” Groovi Pauli explains, "this is our second concept album and it has been a lot of fun to bring together because kids understand why we need to preserve the environment. After choosing the green ideas we wanted in the songs, we needed to find musical styles that fit. You will hear a lot of rock and roll in these tracks, a pinch of jazz, reggae, gospel, hip-hop and something new - two ballads. Aoife sings lead on these two songs, a standout being Conserve Water. “We continued our approach of using call and response (or echo) songs on this album since it works so well with kids. When paired with our music videos, it is remarkably effective in helping kids use and retain new vocabulary. Check out some of our music videos from previous albums on our YouTube channel for Groovi Pauli & Friends!” The song titles on “The Green Album” are: Go Green 绿绿绿 lǜ lǜ lǜ Turn It Off! 关掉！guān diào Trash Can 垃圾桶 lā jī tǒng Recycle 回收 huí shōu Conserve Water 节约用水 jié yuē yòng shuǐ The Earth Is Too Hot 地球太热 dì qiú tài rè Don’t Kill Sharks 不要杀鲨鱼 bú yào shā shā yú Where Did My Dog Go? 我的小狗在哪里？wǒ de xiǎo gǒu zài nǎ lǐ No Forest, No Home 没有森林没有家 méi yǒu sēn lín méi yǒu jiā Below is a brief introduction of each song: The first song, “Go Green,” introduces the spirit of the album and has references to ideas from the other songs. Most prominent is the yodeling to the Chinese word for green (绿 lǜ). For the song “Turn It Off!” the main idea is to save electricity and money by making sure household appliances and electronics (such as the XBOX or iPad) are turned off. The reggae track from the album is “Trash Can,” on which we are reminded of where trash should go. Whether one is thirsty, hungry or just needs to get the ice cream cone wrapper in the right place, this song will direct the listener to the receptacle. Ja, man! Coming off this track is one about separating trash for recycling on the song, “Recycle.” The main idea of this song is that it is easy to get bottles, cans, or batteries recycled if you get in the habit. As the song suggests, start by taking a look at your own garbage. The tempo comes down for the track “Conserve Water,” the first ballad of the album sung by Aoife. On this one, she croons about how everybody needs to be conscious of the amount of water we use, especially since many people in the world do not have ready access to clean, drinkable water. We were inspired on this song by a recent family trip to Burma and saw first-hand how challenging this issue is for many people there. “The Earth Is Too Hot” is the next track and this one has a bluesy feel. The song laments about the big problem we have resulting from global warming and natural disasters. The lyrics emphasize that we should do more to protect the earth. Probably the quirkiest song on this album is “Don’t kill sharks.” Sung from the perspective of sharks themselves, this one starts out with a lone shark singing in gospel style about why sharks get killed – to end up in shark fin soup! Oh no! A mid-song style change to up-tempo jazz shifts the focus to suggesting the names of alternative delicious soups that can be enjoyed instead of shark fin soup. That will help save the sharks! “Where did my dog go?” is the second ballad on the album, this one also sung by Aoife. The main idea is pet owners need to do their part to look after their animals. Aoife’s dog runs away and she realizes she should have taken the dog for walks and played with it more, instead of playing on-line games and visiting her friends all the time. Finally, “No Forest, No Home” is the last song on the album. The gist of this song is that the forest is home to many creatures, some living above, in or below the trees. When trees and forests are chopped down these animals are losing their homes. Groovi Pauli, who composed all the lyrics and songs, records at home on Pro Tools software. Drum loops are used as the main groove to most of the tracks, on top of which he layers keyboard sounds, live accordion, trumpet and Aoife's trombone. The lead vocals and harmonies are recorded last. Then comes the best part – devising and recording the music videos! The final song tracks were masterfully mixed by Michael Nowak at Saga Recording Studio, Vancouver, BC Canada. We hope after listening to the album and learning more about the environment all learners can do their part to ease the impact of pollution on the earth. Thank you! 谢谢！ xiè xie!