In one of this week’s lessons, I let my students listen to a story about two frogs in a milk jug (from a lovely book of fables which I bought in Vienna two years ago and which came with a CD). Today I found the text online so that you can have a read:
Translated, this story reads:
Once upon a time there were two people, who felt they needed some new stimulation. So they joined a German class. In the beginning they enjoyed it very much and they had lots of fun saying those new learned words and sentences. But gradually, the lessons became a bit harder. They had to learn grammar and often found it confusing.
After a while one of them said:” This is too hard. I don’t understand any of it. I might as well give up, because I’ll never be able to speak German!” And with that he left the class and never got the stimulation he so craved.
The other one, however, stuck with it, did his homework, turned up for the lessons, asked for help when he was stuck, and gradually his German improved until, one day, he went to Germany and was surprised how well he was able to have a conversation with some of the Germans he met. All his grammar questions made sense all over sudden and he was so happy, he made a little dance of joy!
What? You mean that wasn’t the translation of the story?
Ok, you’re right, it wasn’t, but the moral of my story is the same:
DON’T GIVE UP ❗
And that applies to lots of things, whether you’re training for a marathon, learning a new language …. or trying to escape from a milk jug – although this probably only applies to frogs 😆
I couldn’t find the exact version as the text, but here is a video in English with a similar story:
Well done. I loved your “translation” of the story.
Thank you, Cindy 🙂