Storyteller: Many times, we have arguments with other people because of different opinions. But we should not quarrel with others because we must realize that everybody looks at things form a difference angle. Here is the folk tale “The blind men and the elephant” There are many versions of this folk tale such as Indian version, Chinese version. But today I would like to tell you Vietnamese version.
Trang 1LE HOAN Primary School
The blind men and the elephant
The folk tale of Vietnam Storyteller:
Many times, we have arguments with other people because of different opinions But we should not quarrel with others because we must realize that everybody looks at things form a difference angle
Here is the folk tale “The blind men and the elephant”
There are many versions of this folk tale such as Indian version, Chinese version But today I would like to tell you Vietnamese version
Would you like to know how the blind men thought about the elephant?
Please follow me to meet them now
Once upon a time, there were six blind men They lived in a village in Vietnam They thought they were very clever
The first man: I am very smart.
The second man: I am smarter than you.
The third man: No, I am the smartest man in this town.
Storyteller:
Every day, they argued with each other One day, an elephant came into village
The little girl: Look! An elephant is coming Let us take a ride on it Wow! It’s a
very big elephant!
All men: An elephant? What is this animal like?
Storyteller:
The blind men did not know what an elephant looked like But, they could smell it and they could hear it Each man touched a different part of the elephant
The first man touched the elephant’s body
It felt hard, big and wide He said
The first man: “An elephant is like a wall”.
Storyteller:
Trang 2The second man touched one of the elephant’s tusks
It felt smooth and hard and sharp He said
The second man: No, it’s not like a wall An elephant is like a spear.
Storyteller:
The third man touched the elephant’s trunk
It felt long and thin and wiggly He said
The third man: No! An elephant is not like a wall It is not like a spear, either.
An elephant is like a snake
Storyteller:
The fourth man touched one of the legs
It felt thick and rough and hard and round He said
The fourth man: No! An elephant is not like a wall It’s not like a spear or a
snake, either An elephant is like a big tree
Storyteller:
The fifth man touched one of the elephant’s ears
It felt thin and it moved He said
The fifth man: No, no! An elephant is not like a wall It’s not like a spear or a
snake or a tree An elephant is like a fan
Storyteller:
The sixth man touched the elephant’s tail
It felt long and thin and strong He said
The sixth man: You’re wrong! An elephant is not like a wall.
It’s not like a spear or a snake or a tree or a fan An elephant is like a rope
Storyteller:
The six men still argued together
The first man: It’s like a wall!
The second man: No, it isn’t! It’s like a spear!
The third man: No, it isn’t! It’s like a snake!
The fourth man: No, it isn’t! It’s like a tree!
The fifth man: No, it isn’t! It’s like a fan!
Trang 3The sixth man: No, it isn’t! It’s like a rope!
Storyteller:
They did not agree A little girl also heard them and said
The little girl: Huh, Be calm! Listen to me, please! You are not very clever.
You did not feel the whole animal You just felt part of it! But, I know what you are talking about It’s an elephant! Hahahaha!"
Storyteller:
Each of them thought that he was right In the same way, we think our opinion to
be right and we fight with others who have different opinion
We should learn to appreciate other people’s opinion This will go a long way is improving our relations with them
Thank you so much for your attention