Achim Baram

Country: The Koreas
Language: Korean

This chant appears one on “Roots and Branches: A Legacy of Multicultural Music for Children.”

“Achim Baram” (“Cold Morning Wind”) is a Korean children’s song whose lyrics are less important than what kids do with them. The hand motions that accompany this Korean kids’ song are essentially rock/paper/scissors — when we reach “Goori goori goori goori gawee bawee bo!” (“scissors, a rock, a hand”) we show one of the three.

Original lyrics:

Achim baram chan baram ae
Ulgo ganun jau girogi
Uri sung-seng ge shil jogae
Yupso hanjang so juseyo
Hahjan malgo doo janiyo
Goori goori goori goori Gawee bawee bo
Cold morning wind
Seagull crying in the morning
While our teachers are stayng here
Write him/her a postcard
Not one but two postcards
Rolling rolling rolling, rolling
Rock, scissors, paper!

Lyrics of All Around This World:

Sei sei sei
Outside in the cold morning wind
Seagulls stand on top of a rock
Teacher, how I you wish you were here!
Put a postcard into the mail
Scissors cut the postcard in half
Goori goori goori goori gawee bawee bo
Achim baram chan baram ae
Seagulls stand on top of a rock
Teacher, how I you wish you were here!
Put a postcard into the mail
Scissors cut the postcard in half
Goori goori goori goori gawee bawee bo