Once upon a time, in a small village in Vietnam, there was a little boy named Tich Chu. He was an orphaned child, living with his grandma. Grandma had to work very hard to raise him; she gave him all her love and a thoughtful care. However, Tich Chu seemed not to love her; he spent all time hanging out with his friends and never cared about Grandma.
One day, Grandma was so sick that she could not get up. Meanwhile, Tich Chu was not home, still busy playing with his friends. Grandma was very thirsty; and she started calling Tich Chu:
- Tich Chu, please give me a sip of water. I am very thirsty.
She called him one time, two times, and three times; but Tich Chu did not show up. Then, she turned into a bird and flied away. Just at that moment, Tich Chu came home looking for something to eat; and he saw everything happened to Grandma. He ran after the bird and cried:
- No, Grandma, don’t fly away. Please stay with me!
- I am very thirsty; I have to find water – replied the bird; and she kept flying away.
Tich Chu kept running after the bird while crying bitterly. Finally, the bird landed next to a spring and started to drink water there. Tich Chu tried to approach the bird and insisted:
- Grandma, I’m sorry, I’m very sorry. Please come back with me. I will give you water, I will take care of you. Please don’t leave me alone.
- It’s too late, too late, Tich Chu. I cannot turn back to a human anymore. Cuckoo, cuckoo, koo…- said sadly the bird.
Tich Chu burst into crying desperately. He felt regret for having afflicted his Grandma before; and he did not know how to have her back with him. Suddenly, a beautiful fairy appeared and asked why he was crying. Tich Chu told everything to the fairy. Then, the fairy said:
- If you want your Grandma back to be a human, you should let her drink the water from a magical spring in a distant land. It is very far from here. I am not sure if you can do it.
- Yes, I can. I will do whatever to turn my Grandma back to a human – said determinedly Tich Chu.
The fairy gave him a pitcher and showed him how to get to the magic spring. After going over many mountains and rivers, finally, Tich Chu found the spring and filled his pitcher with its water. He came back and had the Grandma bird drank that water. The magic indeed worked; his Grandma was back to be a human. From that day on, Tich Chu always took good care of Grandma; and he never left her alone in sickness. (Nam Giang Trinh, Vietnam, 2015)
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Folk Tale
In ancient China, there was a man working on his farm one day. Suddenly, a fat rabbit rush out quickly and crashed into a tree. The rabbit died immediately because it broke its neck. The farmer just witnessed the whole process, so he took the rabbit to home for dinner. The rabbit was fresh and juicy, since the farmer was very poor, this dinner was best of the year he ever had. Watching the bones leaving on the plate, the man started to doubt himself, “Even though I work hard on the farm every day, what I get cannot satisfy me at all. Today I did nothing but watched the rabbit hitting the tree and died, but I got a wonderful dinner at the end. So why I have to work?”. Then an idea was coming to him. In the next day, he discarded all his plow tools and sat next to the tree to wait the same thing to happen. He believed that another rabbit would die for the same reason in some days, and he did not want to miss it. Day by day, the farm was overgrown with grass, and the man could not even see any shadow of rabbit. His story became popular in his town, and parents would use this story to give their kids a lesson that people should always rely on their own hands but not luck. (Jieying, China, 2015)
Folk Tale
This is a story about a farmer and his four sons.
Once upon a time, there was a farmer in a small village of India. He had huge lands on which he used to cultivate rice and wheat. He had four sons who always used to keep fighting with one another on various petty issues. He used to get sad and depressed seeing his sons arguing all the time with each other. Overall, it was not a happy, united family and the farmer was not able to make his sons realize the importance of togetherness in a family.
He was around 75 years old and the thought of his sons fighting with each other always used to disturb him. One day, the farmer was very sick and with each passing day, his health started deteriorating. The sons called the local doctor near their village to check their father and give him medicines. The doctor made it very clear that maybe, these were the last few days of the farmer’s life and that he wouldn’t be able to survive for a long time. Once the farmer got to know this, he decided to make the property papers in order to divide all his property and money between his four sons. But he was very confused about the ratio in which his property should be divided. He didn’t know if he should divide all his possessions equally amongst his four sons or he should give claim of his property in accordance with the age of his sons.
The sad part was that even when the farmer was on death bed, the four sons kept fighting with each other on the issue of division of the property. The farmer made a resolution that before dying, he would sort out all the issues between the four brothers, so that after his death, they don’t fight with each other anymore. He decided to teach them a lesson by asking them to do a small activity. He asked each of his son to bring a small, thin wood stick and then asked each one of them to break their wood stick. Everyone was successful in doing what their father told them to do. He again asked each of his four sons to bring a small, thin wood stick but this time, he asked them to tie together all these four wood sticks in and make a bundle of them. Once his sons were finished following his instructions, he then asked them to break this bundle of wood sticks. This time none of his son was able to break the bundle. Seeing their sad faces, he asked all of them to come and sit beside him. He told them that his four sons were like four wood sticks. If they keep on fighting like this, anyone might very easily break the bond of the family. But if the four of them didn’t argue or fight with each other over small issues and instead try to solve them by talking patiently with each other, their family would get strengthened and no outsider would be able to break their bond.
Our families are also like small, thin wood sticks. If we keep fighting or judging each other over several issues, we won’t be able to maintain a healthy, peaceful living. But, if we sort out our issues and problems by talking openly and calmly with each other, we would live a happy and healthier life and no one would be able to break our bond in our worst situations.
So, what did we learn from this story? We learnt that “unity is strength”. This story makes us realize that we can conquer the greatest challenges in our lives if we have a healthy, strong, united family to guard us all the time and help us whenever we need them. (Harnoor Kaur, India, 2015)
Once upon a time, there was a farmer in a small village of India. He had huge lands on which he used to cultivate rice and wheat. He had four sons who always used to keep fighting with one another on various petty issues. He used to get sad and depressed seeing his sons arguing all the time with each other. Overall, it was not a happy, united family and the farmer was not able to make his sons realize the importance of togetherness in a family.
He was around 75 years old and the thought of his sons fighting with each other always used to disturb him. One day, the farmer was very sick and with each passing day, his health started deteriorating. The sons called the local doctor near their village to check their father and give him medicines. The doctor made it very clear that maybe, these were the last few days of the farmer’s life and that he wouldn’t be able to survive for a long time. Once the farmer got to know this, he decided to make the property papers in order to divide all his property and money between his four sons. But he was very confused about the ratio in which his property should be divided. He didn’t know if he should divide all his possessions equally amongst his four sons or he should give claim of his property in accordance with the age of his sons.
The sad part was that even when the farmer was on death bed, the four sons kept fighting with each other on the issue of division of the property. The farmer made a resolution that before dying, he would sort out all the issues between the four brothers, so that after his death, they don’t fight with each other anymore. He decided to teach them a lesson by asking them to do a small activity. He asked each of his son to bring a small, thin wood stick and then asked each one of them to break their wood stick. Everyone was successful in doing what their father told them to do. He again asked each of his four sons to bring a small, thin wood stick but this time, he asked them to tie together all these four wood sticks in and make a bundle of them. Once his sons were finished following his instructions, he then asked them to break this bundle of wood sticks. This time none of his son was able to break the bundle. Seeing their sad faces, he asked all of them to come and sit beside him. He told them that his four sons were like four wood sticks. If they keep on fighting like this, anyone might very easily break the bond of the family. But if the four of them didn’t argue or fight with each other over small issues and instead try to solve them by talking patiently with each other, their family would get strengthened and no outsider would be able to break their bond.
Our families are also like small, thin wood sticks. If we keep fighting or judging each other over several issues, we won’t be able to maintain a healthy, peaceful living. But, if we sort out our issues and problems by talking openly and calmly with each other, we would live a happy and healthier life and no one would be able to break our bond in our worst situations.
So, what did we learn from this story? We learnt that “unity is strength”. This story makes us realize that we can conquer the greatest challenges in our lives if we have a healthy, strong, united family to guard us all the time and help us whenever we need them. (Harnoor Kaur, India, 2015)
Arabian Nights
Arabian nights or as the literal translation of the Arabic name “one thousand and one nights” is one of the most famous and probably advanced collections of fiction stories in the Arabic literature. The collection was published in a book with the same name, which was translated to many languages and became very famous worldwide.
The book tells the story of a king called Shahriar, who used to marry a new wife each day and kills her by dawn. Shahriar kept this habit for long time, until all the girls in the city were either killed or escaped to save their lives.
One day, one of the guards of Shahriar told him that the prime minister has a beautiful daughter whom he was hiding for long time, her name was Shahrzad. The king immediately called for his prime minister, and asked to marry his daughter, the prime minister was chocked, but couldn’t say a word other than, yes my lord; then he went home, and sadly told his daughter about the king proposal, and asked her to escape, while he will stay and probably be killed. Shahrzad was a smart girl, she asked her father not to be worried and to proceed with the wedding arrangements. She simply had a plan, every night she will start a new fiction story to the king, and keeps telling the story until dawn, then she stops and promises to continue the next night; once a story is finished, she immediately starts a new one. The king was impressed by the stories, and was always eager to know how each one will end. Shahrzad kept doing this for long, long time, until Shahriar forgot about his bad habit, and they lived happily ever after. (Muhammad A. Muhammad, Egypt, 2015)
The book tells the story of a king called Shahriar, who used to marry a new wife each day and kills her by dawn. Shahriar kept this habit for long time, until all the girls in the city were either killed or escaped to save their lives.
One day, one of the guards of Shahriar told him that the prime minister has a beautiful daughter whom he was hiding for long time, her name was Shahrzad. The king immediately called for his prime minister, and asked to marry his daughter, the prime minister was chocked, but couldn’t say a word other than, yes my lord; then he went home, and sadly told his daughter about the king proposal, and asked her to escape, while he will stay and probably be killed. Shahrzad was a smart girl, she asked her father not to be worried and to proceed with the wedding arrangements. She simply had a plan, every night she will start a new fiction story to the king, and keeps telling the story until dawn, then she stops and promises to continue the next night; once a story is finished, she immediately starts a new one. The king was impressed by the stories, and was always eager to know how each one will end. Shahrzad kept doing this for long, long time, until Shahriar forgot about his bad habit, and they lived happily ever after. (Muhammad A. Muhammad, Egypt, 2015)
The Pony across the River
Pony and his mother lived near a small river; he had a very happy lifetime with his mother. One day, his mother said to pony: “Pony, you have grown up, would you help me to carry this bag of full food to your aunt’s home which locate in a village right across the river? ” “Certainly. I am very glad,” said pony.
He was laden with food and came quickly to the small river. But there was no bridge over the river. He wanted to go across the river, but he didn’t know how deep the water is? When he was wondering, he saw a cow was eating not far. Pony quickly ran to crow: "Dear uncle, do you know how deep the river is? Whether I could go across the river? The crow said smoothly with smile: “don’t worry about it. The river is just to my leg."
Pony went back the river and tried to go through the river. At this time, he heard a voice saying: "pony, pony don’t go! This river is too deep to drown my friend last week,” a small squirrel shouted: “Two days ago, one of my friends accidentally fell into the river, the river took him sweep away."
Pony had no idea,” how can I go across the river? I had to go back and asked my mother.” He returned back home and told his mother. "Never mind, let's go and see." Said his mother.
Pony and her mother came to the river again, “try to across the river by yourself.” Mother said. Pony ventured cautiously, step by step walk through the river. Oh, he knew, neither like the cow says river so shallow nor like squirrel says so deep. It is most important to do the things by self. “Thank you, mother." He was particularly happy today.
Through this story we know, if we want to understand the truth, the only way is to go and try by ourselves. (Songhe)
He was laden with food and came quickly to the small river. But there was no bridge over the river. He wanted to go across the river, but he didn’t know how deep the water is? When he was wondering, he saw a cow was eating not far. Pony quickly ran to crow: "Dear uncle, do you know how deep the river is? Whether I could go across the river? The crow said smoothly with smile: “don’t worry about it. The river is just to my leg."
Pony went back the river and tried to go through the river. At this time, he heard a voice saying: "pony, pony don’t go! This river is too deep to drown my friend last week,” a small squirrel shouted: “Two days ago, one of my friends accidentally fell into the river, the river took him sweep away."
Pony had no idea,” how can I go across the river? I had to go back and asked my mother.” He returned back home and told his mother. "Never mind, let's go and see." Said his mother.
Pony and her mother came to the river again, “try to across the river by yourself.” Mother said. Pony ventured cautiously, step by step walk through the river. Oh, he knew, neither like the cow says river so shallow nor like squirrel says so deep. It is most important to do the things by self. “Thank you, mother." He was particularly happy today.
Through this story we know, if we want to understand the truth, the only way is to go and try by ourselves. (Songhe)
The Crow and the Fox
Following is a folk tale told by almost all mom’s/grandparents to their small kids/grandchildren while eating. The following story has the moral that “One Should Think Well before Acting”
The crow and the fox
Once upon a time, a fox and a crow lived in a forest. The crow, being small, took a piece of food from a neighboring house and was happily eating perching on a tree top. A fox that passed through the way noticed the crow and immediately came up with a plan to trick the crow. The fox slowly approached the tree and spoke to the crow: “My dear friend, the whole jungle was filled with unpleasant sounds without you and your sheer presence brings life to the jungle. It would be great if you can sing a song with your sweet voice for other creatures in the forest”. The crow, flattened by the fox continuous compliments, opened its mouth to sing. As soon as it opened the mouth, the entire food fell down and the fox happily ate all the food. The crow looked at the fox helplessly and learnt an important lesson of life – “Think before you act”. (Sriramvignesh Mani)
The crow and the fox
Once upon a time, a fox and a crow lived in a forest. The crow, being small, took a piece of food from a neighboring house and was happily eating perching on a tree top. A fox that passed through the way noticed the crow and immediately came up with a plan to trick the crow. The fox slowly approached the tree and spoke to the crow: “My dear friend, the whole jungle was filled with unpleasant sounds without you and your sheer presence brings life to the jungle. It would be great if you can sing a song with your sweet voice for other creatures in the forest”. The crow, flattened by the fox continuous compliments, opened its mouth to sing. As soon as it opened the mouth, the entire food fell down and the fox happily ate all the food. The crow looked at the fox helplessly and learnt an important lesson of life – “Think before you act”. (Sriramvignesh Mani)
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
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