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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 6; November 02
How the River Scheldt was born
Christine van Dyck, IEPSCF, Belgium
Dear Mario,
Your cultural literacy about Belgium would not be complete without this:
Once upon a time, Jesus and St Peter were travelling through Flanders. In the evening, they got tired but nobody wanted to put them up for the night. Finally, a kind old woman invited them to come and sleep at her place. The next day, Jesus talked to the old lady: “As you've been so kind to us, we want to reward you: whatever you've been doing this morning, you'll go on doing.” And then, both travellers went away. That morning, the old woman had to go shopping but she was so poor that she first counted her money to check if she had enough. And what happened? She went on counting until late in the evening. Her house was nearly too small for all the money she had counted! So the old lady had become rich in one day, and the villagers quickly learned what had happened. So, when Jesus and St Peter came back to the village, people behaved quite differently, everybody wanted to welcome them. The two travellers decided to stay with an old woman who in fact wasn't very kind at all, but very stingy and who liked money above everything. After a nice dinner with her, Jesus and St Peter spent the night at her house. The next morning, St Peter found that she didn't deserve a reward after all, and said: “You too will continue doing the first thing you do today” The old woman smiled and thought to herself: “I'd better make sure I won't be interrupted when I count the money”. So she went to the loo and started peeing and…couldn't stop peeing all day long. That's how the river Scheldt came to exist…
How the Scheldt was born Adapted from an old legend by Mr Son Tyberg
I hope you liked the story,
Mario Christine Van Dyck, Dutch teacher, I.E.P.S.C.F.-Uccle
