“Old Yamaguchi-san had a farm, A I U E O…”

It’s a balmy Thursday afternoon. I’m working through my Japanese textbook for the umpteenth time and once more disillusionment fills my weary soul (well, that’s a little deep, but you get my meaning). I conclude that maybe I should take a step back in the hope that I can move forward later. Before I can converse effectively with a full-blown Japanese person, perhaps I should try to communicate with those slightly further down the food chain first – and I don’t mean the North Koreans.
As I touched on before, animal sounds, or at least the human interpretation of those sounds, vary from country to country. Here is a rundown of who says what on Yamaguchi-san’s farm.

Dog – wan wan
Cat – nyaa nyaa
Mouse – chuu chuu
Crow – kaa kaa
Rooster – koke kokko
Horse – hihiin
Pig – buu buu
Sheep – mee mee
Cow – moo moo
Frog – kero kero

It’s likely that I’ll never be formally tested on my knowledge of Japanese animal sounds (unless my career takes a strange “Japanese Dr. Dolittle” type twist), but it’s a handy elementary school survival tool.