CERMIN HATI

Foltales from around the world

(Source: Astuti, Eka Mulya. English Zone. Erlangga: Bandung.)

A poor man was walking around in the market place. He came upon a man selling broiled lamb chops. The smell of the meat roasting on fire was so delicious that the poor hungry man’s mouth watered. Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford to buy any. He took out a loaf of bread from his back sack, held it to the smoke coming from the roasting lamb chops and ate it. As he was about to leave, the vendor asked for money.

‘but I didn’t eat any of your meat!’ the poor man prostested.

‘that doesn’t matter’, said the greedy merchant, ‘you enjoyed the smoke coming from it, so you have to pay.’

The poor man pleaded for mercy, but the vendor took him to Nasreddin Hodja, a teacher in the country, to solve their differences. They told their stories. Nasreddin Hodja understood their dispute. He dropped a few coins on his wooden desk. The coin made clink-clank sounds.

‘did you hear the sound of the money?’ he asked the meat seller.

‘yes, Kadi Effendi.’

‘if you sell the smoke of the meat, then you get the sound of the money.’ The Hodja restored

(Adapted from: http: www. Readliterature.com)

Question:

1) what is the moral of the story?

2) What would the vendor probably do in the end?

3) what would the poor man probably do in the end?

4) what do you think of the vendor?

5) if you were the poor man in the story, what would you do?

CULTURAL NOTES

Perhaps the most popular figure in the tradition of Turkis Folktale is Nasreddin, (known as Nasreddin Hodja, or “teacher Nasreddin”, n Turkish), who is the central character of thousands of jokes. He generally appears as a person who, though seeming somewhat stupid to those who must deal with him, actually proves to have a special wisdom all his own.

Little Red Riding Hood

I’ll tell you a story about a girl named Little Red Riding Hood. She had a poor old granny who was lying sick in bed.

Little Red Riding Hood came through the woods with a basket full of food, when out of the bushes stepped this good lookin’ wolf dude!

He said, “Hey, Red! I sure like the way you walk!”

She said, “Buzz off, Wolf. I don’t have time to stop and talk. Gotta get to my granny’s house so she won’t get any sicker. “But the wolf knew a short cut and he got to granny’s house quicker.

Granny hid in the closet when Wolfie came around. Wolfie jumped into bed dressed in Granny’s cap and gown. When Red came in, Wolfie grinned a toothy grin, and threw back the covers and told Red to jump in.

Now Red was distracted by Wolfie’s manly charms. But just when he was ready to take her in his arms, Granny came out of the closet and swept into the room, and beat Wolfie’s butt with the handle of her broom.

This story has a moral, just as you know it should: “Never talk to strangers when you’re walking in the woods.” And, if you’re a wolf, you can learn a lesson too: “Don’t mess around with grannies if you know what’s good for you!”

(Source: www.marilynkinsella.org)

QUESTIONS:

1) What is the girl’s name?

2)What happened to her grandmother?

3) What ws she doing when she met the wolf?

4)Why didn’t she stop and talk to the wolf?

5) Why did the wolf get to the house quicker?

6) Where was her grandmother when the wolf came?

7) What did the wolf do in that house?

8) What did the wolf plead the girl to do?

9) What finally happned?

10) What is the moral value of the story?

Question 2:

1) Find and circle the rhyme you hear in the story.

Red        with       fed-bed-led

Food      with       dude-rude-mood

Walk      with       chalk-balk-talk

Sicker    with       quicker-thicker-picker

Charms with       farms-arms-harms

2) What problem appears in the story?

3) What event indicates the climax of the story?

4) What is the function of the last part of the story?