Teaching Proverbs from a literary text

James Thurber

For: Teenagers and adults

Level: Intermediate +

Time: Approx. 1 hour (possibly 90 min.)

Aims: To explore proverbs as means of establishing the difference in civilizational and cultural backgound

LEAD IN

Draw 5 lines on the board and tell the ss they have to guess the title of a story. Tell them that line 1 is definite article, line 2 is a mythical horse-like beast with a horn on its forehead, line 3 is a preposition - opposite of OUT, line 4 another definite article, line 5 a noun - a piece of land where one can grow vegetables usually behind the house.

WRITING

Once they've guessed the title, divide them in 4 groups and ask them to put down 5 NOUNS (but without unicorn and garden) , 5 VERBS, 5 ADJECTIVES and 5 ADVERBS (time and manner) they expect to find in the story. Write all these words on the board for everybody to see. Pair the ss up and set a time limit (10 min) - they'll have to come up with their own story in no more than 10 sentences by using ALL words from the board and adding some of their own, of course.

Read stories aloud.

READING

Now the ss read the original story silently to see whose version was the closest. They will be genuinely surprised with the content as they usually expect a fairy tale. If they like, they can even read it aloud, which could be useful as there are some words that may be unknown to them.

SPEAKING

Ask the ss to think of a moral of the story - this can be done in pairs (it is particularly interesting in multicultural classes as different nationalities have different proverbs ) - they will usually come up with some "awkward" sayings they cojnure up themselves or translate from their mother tongue literally - have them provide arguments for their choice. Now is a good time to give them some English proverbs, preferably on paper slips and split in two halves. Ask them to put them together and choose the one which applies for the story. It may be interesting to discuss equivalents in their native language - there will surely be some, but most proverbs will sound ridiculous when translated literally. (point out civilizational and cultural differencies )

PROVERBS

THE UNICORN IN THE GARDEN

Once upon a sunny morning, a man who sat at his breakfast looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a golden horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden. The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still asleep and woke her. "There is a unicorn in the garden" he said "eating roses." She opened one unfriendly eye and looked at him. "The unicorn is a mythical beast" she said, and turned her back on him. The man walked slowly downstairs and out into the garden again. The unicorn was still there; he was now browsing among the tulips. "Here, unicorn" said the man and pulled up a lilly and gave it to him. The unicorn ate it gravely. With a high heart, because there was a unicorn in his garden, the man went upstairs and roused his wife again. "The unicorn" he said, "ate a lily". His wife sat up in bed and looked at him coldly. "You are a booby", she said, "and I am going to have you put in the booby-hatch." The man, who had never liked the words "booby" and "booby-hatch" and who liked them even less on a shining morning when there was a unicorn in the garden, thought for a moment. "We'll see about that" he said. He walked over to the door. "He has a golden horn in the middle of his forhead", he told her. Then he went back to the garden to watch the unicorn but the unicorn had gone away. The man sat down among the roses and went to sleep.

As soon as the husband had gone out of the house, the wife got up and dressed as fast as she could. She was very excited and there was a gloat in her eye. She telephoned the police and she telephoned a psychiatrist; she told them to hurry to her house and bring a strait-jacket. When the police and the psychiatrist arrived, they sat down in chairs and looked at her, with great interest. "My husband" she said, "saw a unicorn this morning". The police looked at the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist looked at the police. "He told me it ate a lily" she said. The psychiatrist looked at the police and the police looked at the psychiatrist. "He told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead" she said. At a solemn signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their chairs and seized the wife. They had a hard time subduing her, for she put up a terrific struggle, but they finally subdued her. Just as they got her into the strait-jacket, the husband came back into the house.

"Did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?" asked the police. "Of course not" said the husband "the unicorn is a mythical beast". "That's all we wanted to know." said the psychiatrist. "Take her away. I'm sorry, sir, but your wife is as crazy as a jaybird." So they took her away cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. And the husband lived happily ever after.