Language Lizard Update

Dear Reader:

We’re excited to announce new lesson plans just in time for World Folktales and Fables Week (March 2-8).

We have collaborated with Professor Heather Leaman and student-teachers at West Chester University in Pennsylvania to offer our readers detailed units of instruction to teach elementary school children about other languages and cultures. These new lessons use the Bengali folktale Buri and the Marrow to teach about Indian language, culture and customs while introducing important social studies concepts and promoting an acceptance of diversity.

The new lesson plans can be found with our other multicultural lesson plans at www.LanguageLizard.com/lessonplans.htm.

There are many wonderful folktales from around the world that can be used to promote cultural awareness. To encourage our subscribers to continue teaching children about the world around them, we’re offering a discount on some of our popular international folktales and fables (see the Special Subscriber Offer below).

In this issue’s feature article, our guest author writes about her personal experiences and lessons learned when she introduced an elementary school class to another culture. Her article highlights the importance of teaching students to appreciate diversity and the benefits of incorporating cultural lessons in a multicultural classroom.

Lastly, for language teachers in the Northeast, we hope to see you at the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL). Please stop by the Language Lizard table (T-17) to say hello!

Happy reading!

Anneke Forzani
Founder and President
Language Lizard, LLC

Book Review: Yeh-Hsien: A Chinese Cinderella
Retold by Dawn Casey
Illustrated by Richard Holland
Ages 4-8
Review by Maureen Pugh

Cinderella is one of the world’s best known and loved fairy tales. The story, which appears in various forms in many cultures, appears to have originated in China approximately 1000 years ago. The Chinese story, retold here by Dawn Casey, contains many of the elements of the more modern (European) versions that readers may be familiar with.

Our clever and kind heroine Yeh-Hsien is orphaned and left to the care of her tyrannical stepmother and stepsister. She is dressed in rags, given “hardly a scrap to eat,” and is forced to do the hardest chores.

Yeh-Hsien’s only friend is a fish she secretly has raised with “food and with love.” When her stepmother discovers Yeh-Hsien’s secret, she is consumed with desire to capture and eat the fish. Wearing one of Yeh-Hsien’s ragged robes, the stepmother lures the fish to her, and kills and eats Yeh-Hsien’s only friend.

When Yeh-Hsien realizes that her friend is gone, she crumples to the ground weeping. Suddenly an old man floats down from the sky and reveals what happened to her friend. He tells her to fetch the fish bones, as they contain a powerful magic that will grant all her wishes.

Soon spring arrives. Yeh-Hsien’s stepmother and stepsister head to the Spring Festival, ordering Yeh-Hsien to stay and guard the fruit trees. Yet Yeh-Hsien is determined to go. She uses the fish bones to wish for a robe of silk, a dazzling cloak of kingfisher feathers, and shoes of gold. She attends the festival, but when she is recognized by her stepmother, she flees, losing one of her slippers.

The slipper is found and taken to the king, who vows to marry its owner. He leaves the shoe by the wayside where Yeh-Hsien finds it and carries it home. The king and his men follow her home, and in front of her disbelieving stepmother and stepsister, Yeh-Hsien goes to her hiding place, finds her beautiful clothing and returns with both golden shoes. Of course Yeh-Hsien becomes the king’s bride.

The Chinese version of Cinderella is similar to, yet delightfully different from the more recognized European or Disney interpretations of the story. I found Yeh-Hsien to be a stronger character than the heroine in these other Cinderella tales. In the Chinese story, it is Yeh-Hsien herself who decides to go to the festival and makes it happen because she is “so determined.” I also enjoyed the beautiful descriptive language of the story - “looking as graceful as the willow that sways with the wind…”

Although this book is recommended for children ages 4-8, older children who appreciate fairy tales also would find this version of Cinderella appealing.

Yeh-Hsien: A Chinese Cinderella is available in English with translations in: Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese-Traditional, Chinese-Simplified, Farsi, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Kurdish, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

If you’re interested in purchasing this book, please visit the Yeh-Hsien webpage at: http://www.languagelizard.com/Yeh_hsien_A_Chinese_Cinderella_p/cin.htm.

Special Subscriber Offer: 10% Discount on popular World Folktales & Fables:

Through March 31, 2008 we are offering a 10% discount on the following books:

• Yeh-Hsien: A Chinese Cinderella (see product review above): http://www.languagelizard.com/Yeh_hsien_A_Chinese_Cinderella_p/cin.htm
• Buri and the Marrow: This amusing Bengali story is the focus of our new lesson plans. An old woman and her daughter devise a plan to outsmart a fox, a tiger and a lion: http://www.languagelizard.com/Buri_and_the_Marrow_p/buri.htm
• Lion Fables: This set of two entertaining fables includes both the Tibetan fable ‘The Hare’s Revenge’ as well as Aesop’s ‘The Lion and the Mouse’: http://www.languagelizard.com/Lion_Fables_p/lion.htm

Simply apply Coupon Code CCS-WFT upon checkout to receive the discount.

To see the difficulty level of these and other Language Lizard books, please visit our “Book Suggestions” page at: http://www.languagelizard.com/images/Childrens_Bilingual_Books.pdf

Promoting Cultural Awareness in the Classroom
By Heather Howiszak

I recently participated in a project in which I designed several multicultural lesson plans about Indian language, culture and customs. As I was writing these lessons, I also was assisting a fourth-grade teacher who had a student from India in her classroom. I was able to make connections between my lessons and my classroom. The experience also made me appreciate, first hand, how important it is to expose children to different ways of life.

In my fourth grade classroom, I conducted a lesson on India. I had the students read some information and find similarities between our American culture and India’s culture. One example of a similarity is the use of animals for entertainment or on holidays. During the lesson, we learned that camel racing is popular in India. The students drew parallels to our culture by discussing dog-races, sled-dog races, Groundhog Day, Thanksgiving, and Easter. All of the students were very interested in finding connections between the two cultures, especially the student from India. They enjoyed seeing how people who live so far away can still share common interests.

As I continued my lesson on India, I was able to see how important it is for students of diverse backgrounds to share their differences. The Indian boy was extremely excited to share all his extra knowledge about India. When we discussed the Taj Mahal, he told how he had been there many times and he explained the monument’s importance. The other students were very interested in this additional information and asked more questions to gain further understanding. The students were excited to learn from a peer. I went from being their teacher to becoming a student of the new knowledge presented. It was a learning experience for everyone.

While involved on this project, I discovered how much I have to learn about the world around me and how important it is to show an appreciation for diversity. At the beginning, I knew very little about India and had to do a lot of research. Seeing how excited and engaged my Indian student was helped me appreciate the value of presenting world cultures to children in the classroom.

Children need to learn that the way they live is not any better or any worse than how others live. We must expose them to new ideas, people, and cultures. Cultural differences within a classroom also need be discussed. My fourth grade students have become more accepting of their fellow student because he is able to express who he is and how he is different yet similar to them.

Working on the lesson plans and supporting a fourth grade classroom helped me understand how ignorant many people are about others. We all need to work on embracing differences ourselves before we can help the children in our life become accepting of all people. As Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Heather Howiszak is a student teacher in the Elementary and Special Education Departments at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. She authored several lesson plans on Indian language and culture using Language Lizard’s Indian folktale, Buri and the Marrow.

© Language Lizard, LLC. 2008.

Want to use this article in your e-zine or web site? Contact Language Lizard President and Founder, Anneke Forzani, at [email protected].