When the Snipe and Clam Grapple, the Fisherman Profits (Folk Tale)

Once upon a time, a clam crept upon the sandy beach to bask by the sun and relax. A snipe in the sky saw the clam. It was hungry that time, so the snipe planned to catch the clam for its lunch. The snipe flew speedily in the clam’s direction but the clam became aware of the attack and closed its shell quickly. “Ouch, my mouth!” the snipe shouted. Its mouth had been clipped but the clam tightly. The snipe felt a lot of pain and it said to the clam, “I won’t eat you if you open your shell.” The clam, however, didn’t believe the snipe and said, “You think I’m a nut? When I opened my shell, you’ll surely eat me,” and they grappled for a long time. While they were still quarrelling, a fisherman came out and caught both of them. When they realized what had happened, it was too late and they had been cooked.

THE END

Moral Value

*This story tells us we should not fight with each other, otherwise other people will profit.

Richard, Malaysia

Moon Cake Festival

The origin of the moon cake festival is a combination of two legends. The first one ties back to the origin of life. In the beginning there was said to be 12 suns in the sky. Because of this, the world was too hot and people’s lives were miserable. The king, in order to save his people, shot down eleven of the twelve suns in the sky. After being reduced down to one sun, the world was perfect and lives were better. As a reward for his deed, he was given a potion of immortality, but his wife took the potion before he could take it, and she floated to the moon. So now, Chinese believe that there is a beautiful woman that lives on the moon and on the night of the festival she can be seen.

Mandy, Taiwan

Issun-Boushi (One Inch Boy)

Long, long ago, there lived an old man and his wife in a village. They had no children so they prayed to God to give them a baby every day. One day, to their surprise, they were endowed with a small boy whose height was one inch. They named him “Issun-boushi”—One Inch Boy. They loved him and treated him like a treasure, so One Inch Boy grew up strong; however, he couldn’t become a tall boy.

One day, he said, “Father and mother, please give me a needle, a straw, a bowl and a chopstick”. “What are you going to do with them?” his mother asked. “A needle is a sword, a straw is a sheath, a bowl is a boat, and a chopstick is an oar. I’ll go to the capital city and become a samurai”, he said. His parents let him; therefore he left the city.

He hopped into the bowl and arrived at the river, then went down the river like an arrow. Then a fish attacked him, so he drove the fish away with the chopstick. The fish mistook him for tasty food. Then he was thrown by a wave, whipped by rain, and blew by wind. At last, he made it to the city.

He decided to work for a wealthy man’s house after he arrived at the city. One day he went to a shrine with the wealthy man’s beautiful daughter. Halfway, they met a big demon. The demon was going to kidnap her. One Inch Boy stood up to the demon bravely. “Bad demon! If you touch her, I’ll kill you!”

“Insolent boy! I’ll eat you!” the demon said and quickly swallowed him down. Then, “ouch!….ouch!” The demon felt pain. One Inch Boy pricked him with the sword of needle in his stomach. “Ouch!…I’ll die. I’ll give up. Help me!” The demon vomited him out and ran like a rabbit.

“Thank you so much for helping me, said the princess. “You are so small but so brave. Look! The demon has dropped something. This is an uchide-no-kezuchi – mallet of luck. If we shake this, we can get anything we hope for. What do you hope?”
“I’d like to be tall. Please make me a tall boy.” She shook it; therefore he rapidly became a tall young man. Moreover, he married her and became a neat samurai as he had wished.

Eriko, Japan

Korean Folk Tale

A long time ago, a magician lived in the lake. One evening, when the woodman cut down a tree with an iron ax, he dropped the iron ax in the lake, so he cried because he didn’t have another ax or enough money to buy one. He cried nearby the lake. Just at that time, the magician appeared there, and said, “Why are you crying?”

The woodman said, “I dropped my iron ax in the lake”, and then the magician disappeared into the lake.

Afterwards he appeared standing on the lake with a silver ax and he asked, “Is this yours?”

The woodman answered, “It’s not mine”, so the magician again went into the lake and then appeared in front of the woodman with a gold ax. But this gold ax was not his, so the magician went into the lake and appeared with his ax. Only then the man said, “It’s mine”.

The magician said, “You didn’t lie so I’ll give you all three axes, your ax and the gold and silver axes. Afterwards, the man sold his axes for a lot of money; so then he became a rich person.

Another woodman heard this story. So this woodman went there and intentionally dropped his iron ax and then he pretended to cry, so the magician also appeared in front of his eyes, and he asked, “Why are you crying?”

He answered, “I lost my ax.” The magician went into the lake after the conversation and appeared with a gold ax.

He asked, “Is this yours?”

He answered, “Yes”, so the magician disappeared at once. The man had nothing, not even his ax.

RiNa

The Man and the Wolf

Once there was a man who grazed sheep; he wanted to joke with his friend, then he called to them, “Help, help, help, he-e-e-e-e-e-e-lp, the wolf came!!!” After that his friends ran fast to him, but they found him laughing. Then they asked him, “What happened?” and he said, “Nothing, I am just joking.” He did it two more times, but one day the wolf came for real; he wanted to eat the sheep; then the man called his friends, “Help, help, please, someone help me!!!” But his friends thought he was joking. Then nobody helped him, and then, the wolf ate the sheep.

Ahmed, Yemen

Gold Ax and Silver Ax

Once upon a time there lived a good woodcutter. He was a man who cared for his parents with all his heart. But he was poor. He used to go to the forest to cut down trees.

One day while he was searching for a tree to cut down, he decided to cut down a tree that was near a pond. While he was cutting down the tree, his old ax fell into the pond by mistake. He said to himself, “Oh, my God! If I don’t have my ax, I can’t cut down trees and then I will not be able to earn any money. How will I take care of my parents?” He was crying because he was sad.

At the time, the god of the mountains appeared.from the pond and asked, “Why are you sad?”

“I’m a woodcutter, and when I was cutting down the tree, my ax fell into the pond. If I don’t have my ax, I won’t be able to earn any money,” he answered.

“I’m willing to bring you your ax,” said the god of the mountains. The god of the mountains disappeared. The god soon appeared with a gold ax. He asked, “Is this gold ax yours?” “No, it isn’t,” he answered. The god disappeared again. He came back with a silver ax. He asked, “Is this silver ax yours?” The woodcutter answered, “No, it isn’t.” He asked, “Then is this old metal ax yours?” The woodcutter answered, “Yes, it’s mine.”

The god of the mountains said with a smile, “You are very honest. I will give you all three axes as a reward.” The god gave him all three axes. The woodcutter and his parents lived happily ever after.

You Jin, Korea

Folk tale- Urashima Tarou

One day, a young man found that a turtle was being persecuted by children and helped it. The turtle thanked him and invited him to a castle in the sea. There were many beautiful fish and a beautiful princess. The man enjoyed dancing and eating good food, but the princess told him to go back to shore as soon as possible and gave him a box. She also told him not to open the box until he arrived on shore. When he arrived on shore, he found that many years had passed and that all of his acquaintances had grown old because the time had passed much faster in the castle than on shore. He felt very sad and opened the box. Then smoke came from the box and covered him, and he suddenly became old. So, he lived with his friends and became happy.

Hajime, Japan

Good bye, Hajime!

Have a good trip back to Japan! We enjoyed having you in class.

-AE2 classmates

Welcome to Blogging!

Welcome to your class blog! This is a space for you to publish all of the writing you have done so far and to show off all of your hard work. Have fun and good luck!