Reading Notes: Filipino Popular Tales, Part A

The Three Friends: the Monkey, the Dog, and the Carabao

Honestly, I didn't read this story because I have a slight phobia of snakes. So when I saw the photo, I immediately clicked to the next story.

 
Three Brothers of Fortune

I think the boys should be homeschooled and the boys should be triplet girls of the age of 12. I might make the book, the mat and the stone different objects. This story seems to be genie like in a sense, and I think I would make the story more practical and use objects that could actually fix things. There wouldn't be a woman dying, but instead a woman almost drowning and the girls have to figure out how to save her with the three tools each of them has. But they three girls are so spoiled rotten and don't think for themselves that the woman almost drowns because it takes forever for the girls to figure out what they should do. The story would continue on to that the woman says she owes the girls, but can only pay one, give food to the other and give books to the last. The girls don't want any of it.
The Clever Husband and Wife

I honestly would not make this a happy ending. I would make it so that the husband and his wife learned a valuable lesson about money and faking death and lying. 

 
The Devil and the Guachinango

I would change the end so that the devil died once all the bells were rung. I think the princess shouldn't have married the guachinango at all. She should marry a poor boy, whom I would add in as a character. She would fall in love with the poor boy, but instead have to be forced to marry the guachinango because of the devil. When the guachinango sees that the princess isn't in love with him but instead, the poor boy, he would try to back down, but the devil would insist that he stay and finish what he started. 

Church bells. Source: Imagejournal.org

Bibliography: These stories come from Dean Fansler's monumental Filipino Popular Tales, published in 1921.


Note: All of these stories are well-thought out, but the endings seem abrupt and too positive. I would definitely change my own story to make a lesson out of the characters that are negative or evil. 

Review: Prefectionist

My favorite thing from the announcements was from Saturday, Feb. 25.



Source: Announcements 

I identify with this comic in a lot of ways because I love editing, resumes and being a perfectionist. It's hard to be all, and it takes me a while to write nonfiction because I'm constantly editing myself. As for resumes, I'm working on resumes right now for jobs, so I think this is funny but also terrifying.

Week 6 Storytelling: A Series of the Ill Luck Child

The birth:
0 months old.

There was a daughter born to two beautiful actors. They had a scary birth, but overall they thought they had borne a healthy child. But when she was born, the doctor told them that she was a child of ill luck. At first they were scared, but then they remembered that it was just an old myth from Chinese culture. And it made sense because their doctor was Chinese. But they decided to ignore the doctor and continue on with life.

The Childhood:
2 years old.

Julia's childhood wasn't difficult, but she was prone to accidents and had a lot of back luck. When she turned two, the accidents and bad luck were at their worst.

Accident 1: At home.

She tripped and fell while walking from one end of the house to the other and sliced her knee open. They rushed to the hospital.

Accident 2 (within 3 weeks of the first): At school.

She was sitting at her desk working on her own coloring project when another child ran by with scissors. He ran into a nearby desk and fell, accidentally stabbing Julia in the arm. They rushed to the hospital again.

Accident 3 (1 week later): Backyard.

Julia was in the backyard playing in her sandbox when a snake slithered by from their garden and bit her on the foot. Hospital again. Only this time, after blood tests were done, the doctor came back with other results.

Julia had cancer. A cancer classified as neuroblastoma, a common childhood cancer.

The two beautiful actors cried. They were scared and exhausted. They didn't understand how a two-year-old could be prone to so many accidents and then be diagnosed with cancer. That's when they decided to call their doctor who had delivered Julia.

The phone rang once. Then twice.

"Hello?" said the male voice. "This is Doctor Lee."

"Hi Doctor Lee. This is Shriva and Lucas Martin calling about our daughter, Julia, that you delivered about two years ago."

"Oh yes. I remember Julia. She is the child of ill luck. But, uh, what seems to be the problem?" Doctor Lee asked.

"Well, our daughter has gotten into three serious accidents in the past two months, and now, we just found out she has cancer," Shriva said, shrieking into the phone.

"Ah, I see. I'm sorry, but this is normal. What don't you understand about a child of ill luck? Julia is not set to have a normal life. She will have bad luck for eternity. Nothing can solve this issue," he said.

They both cried and hung up the phone. They both thought, "How could this be? How could this ancient Chinese myth be true?"


The Meeting:

30 years old.

Julia made it to her thirtieth birthday. Of course, bad luck was part of her everyday life, but somehow she managed to power through all the bad accidents and bad luck. She also lived thirty years with her cancer. Her parents believed it was a miracle — the only good miracle — that she lived to see her thirtieth birthday. Julie wasn’t in pain, but her strength weakened with every passing day.

One day, she was at the grocery store buying her weekly list of food. Julia bent down to grab a can of beans on the bottom shelf. She brushed against the cart, causing it to move slightly. All of a sudden she heard a low-rumbled “oomph,” from a brown-haired, good-looking man about thirty.
Julia stood up and immediately apologized.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were standing there,” she said.
The man with no name waved his hand, as if it were no big deal.
He said, “Oh, it’s not a problem. Really, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have been standing so close to a shopping cart. Those things are just waiting to cause accidents.”
Julia laughed.






She was laughing so hard that she dropped the can of beans on the attractive man’s foot. He winced in pain. Julia always knew how to make a good impression, especially with her bad luck.


The Cancer:

32 years old. 

Julia and the man with no name married shortly after meeting in the grocery store that day.

Before you continue reading, beware, this isn’t going to be a happy ending.

OK. So you’ve decided to continue reading.

Back to the end of the story then: Julia got sick a few months after they were married. The doctor told them that the cancer was finally taking over, but that she probably had another ten years to live, if she was lucky. But she knew with her luck, it wouldn’t be good.

Her husband with no name couldn’t stand to watch Julia in this pain, especially for ten years. So he took it upon himself to go and find a cure for this cancer. He kissed Julia on the forehead and left for five years. He told himself that he wouldn’t return unless he had found the cure to the cancer. He had to.

The Death:

36 years old.

The husband with no name came back six years later. Don’t worry, Julia had her parents and other family members watching over her while he was gone.

He had finally found the cure. He immediately sent Julia to the hospital to be treated for the cure. She was cured within one week. But one must remember, she is a child of ill luck. As her mom drove her back from the hospital, a semi-truck hit the car head on, and both Julia and her mother were pronounced dead at the scene. 

Week 5 Storytelling: The Never-ending Magic Trick

The master fell in love. His wife betrayed him. He killed her. He set out to kill all women but with a twist. They wouldn’t die if they could perform a magic trick that he enjoyed. So each day the master’s servant would go out and find him a woman, and the woman would have a day to figure out what kind of magic trick she wanted to perform. Some did well, some did not. Of course, those that did not do well had to die that night, all for the servant to find the master a new woman the next day. But then one day a woman was brought in by the name of Genie. The master didn’t know it, but she was known as the best magician in the land and could entertain and fool everyone that watched her.
She was not afraid of being in the master’s house, for she knew a magic trick that would end the master’s killing of women for eternity.
As she was brought into the mansion, she was greeted, fed a nice meal and then it was time for her to perform her duty.
She began her magic trick, and smoke appeared. The master was already intrigued by her and how she had started the magic trick. No woman before her had started a trick like this.
The smoke dissipated and from the woman’s mouth a snake slithered out and began talking to the master. The snake begins to dance and sing for the master. After the song was over, the master was pleased, but finally knew the girl’s time had come to an end. So as he was about to send her away to meet her fate, Genie said the trick wasn’t over. The snake began to act out a one-person (well animal) play that lasted the entire day. The master was so entertained that he let both the snake and Genie live to see the next day. Each morning when the master woke up, a play, story, or song would be played for the entire day so that the lives would be saved. The master never caught onto Genie and the snake’s plan.
One day they fly the master to another country but he thinks he is in a different time period and place. He enjoys what it has to offer him so much that he doesn't think of killing her because he still thinks it is a magic show. When really, Genie and the snake have drugged the master and flown him indeed to another country where he is living. The master never figures it out, but gets upset with her so she must drug him again to fly him back to his home. When he gets there, he plans to kill her, but Genie stops him again and tells him she has one more magic trick. Her magic trick is she disappears and takes all the women with her outside the village. The master can no longer take from the land he has power over.

Genie the Magician. Source: HDWallpaperpc

Author's Note: The story is loosely based off Scheherazade from Arabian Nights. Instead of Scheherazade telling stories, a woman named Genie does magic tricks so that the Master won't kill her.

Bibliography: UNtextbook, India Unit, Arabian Nights, The Story of the Merchant and the Genius

Reading Notes: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, Part A

Notes from: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments


READING A:
Scheherazade

I think for this story I might change it from the Sultan just having the women killed to having the women perform a magic trick or show for him each morning, and if he didn't like it, then the wife would die. If he did like it, she had another day to live. 

Then I would change Scheherazade's original idea to think up of a magic trick that transported the Sultan to a different time period or something where he couldn't kill any more wives or Scheherazade herself.


The Story of the Merchant and the Genius 

Scheherazade continues doing her magic trick and making the Sultan think he is in a different time period and place and he enjoys what it has to offer him so much that he doesn't think of killing her because he still thinks it is a magic show. When really, Scheherazade and her father have drugged the Sultan and flown him indeed to another country where he is living. The Sultan never figures it out, but gets upset with Scheherazade so she must drug him again to fly him back to his home. When he gets there, he plans to kill her, but Scheherazade stops him again and tells him she has one more magic trick. Her magic trick is she disappears and takes all the women with her outside the village. The Sultan can no longer take from the land he has power over. 

The Story of the First Old Man and of the Hind
The Story of the Second Old Man, and of the Two Black Dogs
The Story of the Fisherman
The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban
The Story of the Parrot; The Story of the Ogress
The Story of the Physician's Revenge
The Story of the Sultan and the Fish
The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles

A genie that I would image in a story. Source: funnyfactsss

After reading these stories that Scheherazade is telling, I feel I could make up any tale that was intriguing. I think I would base my story loosely based off The Story of the Merchant and the Genius as well as Aladdin. There would be a genie who granted wishes, but every wish granted the grantee would realize that what he asked for wasn't really what he wanted.


Bibliography: UNtextbook, India Unit, Arabian Nights

Week 4: Feedback Focus

Feedback Focus Techniques

1. Reading Out Loud: I read The King, the Falcon, and the Drinking-Cup.

Before I started this technique, I pretty much knew I wasn't going to like it. I enjoy reading books aloud to children and public speaking, but when it comes to reading out loud for myself, as in for comprehension, it isn't helpful. So as I read the text out loud to myself this time, I don't really comprehend what I'm reading. I tend to focus more on the single words than whole sentences. Also, when someone else is reading to me, I don't comprehend it either because I have to visually see it to comprehend. So verbal/oral reading doesn't work for me. I have to read it in my head to comprehend the best. 

Photo of a falcon. Source: Wikimedia Commons

2. Copy-and-Delete. I read: What Makes the Lightning

This strategy worked better for me than reading aloud. But this technique is too tedious for me. I tend to read fast and comprehend main ideas, and stopping to take notes for every paragraph slows me down and takes the focus away from the entire story. I see how this would be good for taking a multiple-choice test afterward testing comprehension and details, but I don't think it's necessary for bigger details. I think the most effective for me would be to read silently and take notes after every several paragraphs on the same screen with the story next to my notes.


3. Use a Timer. I read What the Heart Desires. 

Out of all three techniques, the timer worked the best for me. I don't necessarily need a timer to stay focused but I think if I had to choose a technique to use, I would choose the timer. During the time, I honestly just read the story, which was actually very interesting and entertaining. I tend to only lose focus when reading stories that I know won't interest me, such as a history textbook.

Additional Notes:

Ranking the three strategies in terms of usefulness: 

1. Timer

2. Copy-and-delete

3. Reading Out Loud

I wasn't surprised the way these techniques affected my reading. They were interesting to try out, but I focus the best in silence or listening to music with little to no action in front of me and reading to myself. I always loved to read when I was a child, so I have mastered the art of reading to myself and staying focused without using a different method. 

For the timer, I would say the disadvantage is racing against the timer. It almost feels like you're trying to race against the timer, trying to read as much as you can in 10 minutes. When you get close to the 10-minute mark, you start to lose focus. 

For the reading out loud, the disadvantage is you can't always do this, especially if you're in a public place. The advantage is that reading verbally works best for some people to comprehend. 

The copy-and-delete is tedious, which is what I think the disadvantage is. The advantage is that you get to take notes about each paragraph, which would result in detailed notes and great comprehension, but it would take a long time and reading would be long.

Again, I would rather read silently to myself. 

I never used techniques exactly like any of the three, but I have taken notes while I've read, just like I've done for this class. 

Week 4 Storytelling: Hunt or Be Hunted

Falcon in the air. Source: Wikimedia Commons.  

Hunt or Be Hunted

The king and his servants go out one morning, venturing into the woods. Guns in hand, the king was ready to catch a good bird. He always loved the sport of hunting. He had a room filled with taxidermy. He was so proud of everything he had hunted and shot down. In reality, most of his servants that went on his hunting trips were really the ones who shot and killed everything. But of course, being the king, credit was due to him.

Continuing down the forest path, the king starts thinking about what he will catch today. Then, he turns around to partake in the conversation his servants are enjoying. But when he turns around to interject his thoughts, the servants stop walking, but they don’t stop talking. They weren’t talking.

The king finds it odd, and asks, “What did you say?”

Servant One replies back that no one was talking. So the king shrugs it off and continues walking. The conversation he heard before starts back up. The voices are talking about how funny the humans look when they walk. The voices then started to make fun of the king’s boots with the rhinestones at the top. Laughter ensued.

The king abruptly turns around to his servants again and raises him voice a bit, “Alright! Who is talking about me and my shoes? It’s not funny.”

Servant Two raises his eyebrows at the king and replies, “No one, sire, is talking nor making fun of your shoes. Are you feeling alright? Should we head back?”

The king is frustrated now. He threatens to send one of the servants back to start the meal for lunch instead of enjoying the hunting trip. The servants all swear they aren’t talking.

The king starts to take a step when a falcon flies in front of his face and screams, “Coward!”

The king jumps back and asks Servant One if he heard the bird talk.
Servant One says, "Your honor, I have not heard anything but us talking since we came out here."

Servant One is extremely worried about the king and insists they go back.

The king says, "No."

He wants to kill the falcon he just saw. So he loads up his rifle and waits. The falcon is sitting at the top of the tree and is now laughing at the king. The king asks the servants again if they can hear the bird. 

They reply saying, "Your honor, we truly don’t hear anything."

The king is so frustrated that he sets his rifle up and takes a shot at the falcon. The falcon stops laughing and falls from the tree, hitting the hard ground. The servants congratulate the king with a pat on the shoulder and a round of applause.

Then as the servants are bagging up the bird, the king starts to hear more laughing. The king ignores it and starts to walk back toward the castle when another falcon immediately swoops down and disorients the king. The king falls on his face, but he is still silent. The king orders his servant to shoot the other falcon. As Servant Two raises his rifle to shoot the bird, he accidentally trips on a branch right as he releases the trigger, and he shoots and kills the king.

All of the servants run away because they are scared. As the servants disappear from the crime scene, the king's limp body lay still. All of a sudden, the body slowly rises into the air and transforms into a falcon— just like the one he shot. The new bird flies around for a second trying to understand just how his wings work. The king realizes he is no longer in his human body. He starts screeching, and the other falcons come around to see what it going on. They start to laugh and talk.
One falcon, which is the wife of the bird the human king had killed, says to the king falcon, "You must figure out a way to live and survive in the woods. You have spent many a year killing our species and our family. You must figure out now how to survive hunters like you were once."

So, he lives the rest of his life as a falcon trying to survive in the wilderness and change the minds of hunters who just hunt for sport as he did. 

Author's Note:

This story is loosely based off The King, the Falcon, and the Drinking-Cup from The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908. In the original story the king does kill the falcon even though it saves him, but in my story, the falcon is still killed, but then the king turns into a falcon and is then hunted just as he was doing. Just like my other stories for this class, I enjoy reading and writing stories that have universal lessons. For this story, I believe my universal lesson is treat others how you would like to be treated. This includes people, places, things, and animals. Although I am a meat-eater I have friends who have chosen to be vegetarians and vegans. I appreciate and respect their decisions. In addition, my mom is also a meat-eater but she never respected hunting animals for sport. I have grown to feel the same way about hunting. I believe anyone is free to hunt, but I believe it is only moral to hunt for food, as the original reason hunting was invented. Lastly, I wrote this story to show how we must treat other people, things, and animals with kindness. We never know what kind of karma is behind us.

Bibliography: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Reading Notes: Fables of Bidpai, Part A

Fables of Bidpai by Maude Dutton: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai.

Notes:

READING A:

The Rustic and the Nightingale
I think I would write this story in first person, detailing the bird and what it was doing. I would give the bird dialogue as well. I wouldn't write as much dialogue, as right now it is too long.
The King, the Falcon, and the Drinking-Cup
For this kind of story, I would make the animals talk to the king in a way that the others cannot hear. The people he is with will think he has gone crazy. The king doesn't want people to think he has gone crazy so even though the animals are talking to him and he finally has sympathy for him, he decided to shoot and kill the next bird he sees. His friends think him brave and strong. The animals he can talk to are now upset and don't understand why he would do such a cruel thing. The king apologizes to the animals around him and to the bird's family of who he has shot. But all of a sudden the king's friend goes to shoot another bird but accidentally trips on a branch right as he released the trigger and he shoots and kills the king. 

Falcon in the air. Source: Wikimedia Commons. 

All of the men run away because they are scared and they also know they need to run to get help. As the men disappear from the crime scene, the limp king's body lay still. All of a sudden, the body is lifted into the air and transformed into a bird. Just like the one he shot. He lives the rest of his life as a bird trying to survive in the wilderness and change the minds of hunters who just hunt for sport as he did. 

The Two Travelers

I would write a story about the water and how it heals, protects, or harms if you displease it. The water commands its visitors to perform tasks and to report back to it in return for one life-changing favor. Someone wishes for the king to die. What happens next to the wisher isn't good. 

Note: I read through the other stories, but none of them spoke to me in creativity as the the Drinking Cup story. This is what I will write about for my story for week 4. 

Week 3 Storytelling: Fortunate Findings

Fortunate Findings

By Mia Chism

Once there was a poor, poor village just outside the kingdom’s reach, and every morning Baker Paolo would put out a basket of burnt bread for the children to grab on their way to school. The children would take what they needed to fill the rest of their stomachs for the morning and be on their way, never taking more than was filling, for they knew other children might come along who also needed it. The baker always looked forward to seeing the children's smiling faces in the morning, knowing he was at least putting some joy in the children's lives. Pitter patter went the rain on the bread basket, making the top loafs somewhat soggier than the rest. The children didn't mind. This was a normal day for the poor village and its children.

Just a few miles north, pitter patter went the rain on the windows inside the kingdom. Prince Sam looked out on the gloomy, rainy summer day. Bored to the bone and never having anyone to play with, no matter rain or shine.

The view of the palace from the village. Source: Mark Fodden 

He woke up at the same time he did every day — never knowing why he actually had to get up at a specific time since there wasn't anything he had to do. His mom, the Queen, always insisted he get up and be productive. But she would never let him have friends over to play, if he had any friends at all. The King never really had much input in raising Sam, since he was always too busy running the kingdom.

Sam went to school, but he was always by himself. He could never go anywhere without his kingdom guards since the Queen always feared for his safety.

He was never left alone. Pitter patter still on the window. Nothing ever changed.

Until one day, at just seven years old, Prince Sam found the courage to escape from his kingdom guards when they were chatting with village maidens. While the guards were laughing and trying to impress the maidens, Prince Sam slowly slithered toward the ground and when no one seemed to notice him, he crawled away.

After he passed a few stores, he got up from his knees. Once he stood up, his eyes locked on a bread basket. Then his eyes focused on all the children surrounding the bread basket. He longed to be with them, for he never got to play with children his age. He was always alone within the palace walls.

So he slowly made his way over to the bread basket, and the poorer children looked at him. At first the village children didn't notice the better-dressed boy, but when they did, some of them were cautious. They could tell by the Prince’s clothing that they weren’t like him. One of the children almost said something to Sam, but decided against it and continued shoving bread down his throat. But the children grabbed as much as their hands could hold, and then the Prince tried to say something.

"Hi! Do you come here often?" he asked into the crowd of children.

No one answered for the village children didn't think they could speak to someone like this boy. Some of the children even ran away.

Sam tried again. "What's your name?" he said, addressing a young girl with pigtails and pink torn shoes.

She looked at him for a long second, but then said, "Annie."

"Hi Annie. My name is Sam. Are we all allowed to take this bread?"

"Yes. We are," Annie said.

Then taking a bite of the bread in her hand, she skipped away to her friends. All Sam wanted to do was be friendly and learn more about this bread that Annie said was free.

So, as all the children had left him, Sam put his hand in the basket and grabbed as much as he could, but his hand would not come out of the basket. The more he tried to pull his hand out from the basket with all of the bread, the more his hand stayed put in the basket.

Prince Sam started to get frustrated.

Baskets of bread. Source: Wikimedia Commons 

He started to cry out, and the children who hadn’t made it very far, turned around to look. A few moments later, some came back to him. They told him to let go of some of the bread and take only what he could eat.

The Prince screamed out, "But why? I want all of this! I want to taste it all. At home I am allowed to take whatever I want."

One of the children who had come back was the young girl, Annie.

"Sam, we don't know what it's like where you live, but where most of us come from, we only take what we need, for that's all we can afford. If we take more than what we need, then there is none for the rest," Annie said.

The Prince was still whining, but started thinking about what Annie was saying.

He slowly let go of most the bread in his hand, and only picked up what he knew he could consume.

All at once, his hand was free. Then his belly was full.

Annie asked him if he wanted to accompany them to school that day.

Sam thought to himself, "I've made a friend, finally."

We should only take what we need and leave the rest for those who are not as fortunate.

Author's Note:

This story is based on The Boy and the Filberts from The Aesop for Children. In the original story, the boy puts his bands into a barrel of filberts, a type of hazelnut. He tries to take more than he needs and can grab all at once. He didn't want to give up any of the ones in his hand and he begins to whine. His mother tells him to take only what he needs. In this story, I have added two different environments, the kingdom and the poor village. I have also created more drastic characters with the Prince from the kingdom and the poor village children, giving them personality and dialogue. I wanted the Prince not to just grab more than he could carry out of greed, but because he wasn't taught any differently growing up as a prince. The lesson from both stories is essentially the same: take only what you need, leave the rest for others. The truth is that in life, there will always be people with more than you and people with less than you, and we must all respect each other enough to not take from others by taking more than what we need for ourselves.

The first picture resembles the kingdom, which is what I imagine it looking like. The second picture is of a bread basket, which represents the bread that Baker Paolo sets out every morning for the village children. I chose this story because I enjoy stories that have lessons behind them — that teach a valuable moral.

Bibliography:

The Aesop for Children with illustrations by Milo Winter (1919).