Elephants Teach You Painting, Numbers and French

Recently, under the delusion that I was finally going to get busy and “finish” learning French after all these years, I spent a couple of nights listening to French children’s songs on YouTube. This one really stuck with me. I’ve been singing it spontaneously for weeks now.



Translated, the nonsensical words mean something like this:

One elephant
Is deceptive, is deceptive
One elephant
Is enormously deceptive.
Oil painting is rather hard,
But it’s more beautiful than watercolors.

Two elephants . . .

Then you repeat it obsessively, going to however many elephants you like.

There’s a pun in here, because the word for deceive, trompe, is also the word for an elephant’s trunk.

The part about painting is my favorite because it’s so random. It also reminds me of this video of an elephant painting.



I was a little astounded when I first saw this, but after all, elephants are among the most intelligent of animals. This one has been taught to paint a picture by tracing an existing image. Apparently when left to their own devices elephants will create colorful abstract paintings. Now if an elephant can make art, surely I can learn a second language!