Why not try reading "The North Wind and the Sun" in Japanese? Let's continue absorbing new words and expressions today!
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Well, this time too we would like to introduce a story to help support your studies.
The story I would like to introduce is "The North Wind and the Sun."
"The North Wind and The Sun"
Once upon a time, the North Wind and the Sun were arguing in the sky about who was stronger.
The North Wind says:
"I'm stronger. When I blow, trees fall and buildings fly apart."
The sun is not giving up either.
"No, I'm definitely stronger. If I shine brightly, neither people nor animals will be able to go outside."
That's how the fight went.
This will never be resolved no matter how much time passes.
"Well then, let's have a contest to see who is truly stronger."
said the North Wind.
Looking down, I saw a traveler walking down the road.
The sun said.
"Let's say the one who strips the traveler of his clothes is stronger."
"Okay then, I'll start."
The North Wind puffed out his cheeks and blew a cold breeze at the traveler.
"Ahh, it's cold."
The traveller was so surprised that he buttoned up his shirt up to his neck.
Whoosh, whoosh. The north wind blew an even stronger blast at the traveler.
"Ugh, this is too cold..."
The traveler took a thick coat from his bag and put it on over his clothes.
The north wind blew harder and harder.
The traveler was no longer able to walk and had to crouch down, clutching his coat tightly.
"Hahaha, looks like I failed. Now it's my turn."
The Sun said with a laugh.
Then the sun replaced the north wind and sent out a warm, cozy beam of light.
"Hey, what happened to that north wind earlier? It's suddenly gotten warm."
The traveller said, standing up.
"Oh, good. Now I can continue my journey."
The sun shone a little brighter as it saw the traveller set off.
The traveller then began to sweat and took off his thick coat.
The sun shone a very strong light on the traveller.
"Wow, it's hot."
The traveler screamed, wiping the sweat from his brow.
Then he took off all his clothes and jumped into a nearby river.
"Did you see, North Wind? It looks like I've won."
The Sun smiled and looked at the North Wind.
How was it.
It's a famous story, so some of you may already know it.
This story is by Aesop and teaches us the lesson that it is more effective to gently and kindly persuade people to do something than to force them.
In your daily life, there are times when you need to educate and motivate people, such as when you want your child to do something or when you want your subordinate to become a certain type of person. What do you do in such situations?
Based on my experiences so far, this time I would like to talk about what I feel is important in getting people to act independently.
I think what's important is to take the initiative and do it yourself, rather than telling someone else to do it.
In the past, when I wanted my younger sister to help me with the housework, I would tell her to "wash the dishes" or "hang out the laundry," but she would say, "I'm busy right now," and never do anything. I was always annoyed by this, but one day, while I was doing the dishes, my sister came over and helped me without me having to say anything. When I showed her how to act independently, she imitated me and started to act on her own. Since then, I have been using this method to get help from my sister.
I have also had this experience.
When I was a student, there was a very capable employee at the store where I worked part-time. He was the kind of person who would proactively do tasks that didn't have to be done, such as cleaning small areas and providing customer service that wasn't in the manual. When he was there, all the part-time staff would imitate him and take on those extra tasks. However, after he moved to another store, strangely enough, no one would do them.
It's interesting how our actions affect other people.
If I have children in the future, before I tell them to "study!" or "read books!" I think that if I can show them myself studying or reading books, and implicitly make them think that studying is fun, they will become a child who can learn on their own.
It seems like it's still a long way off... (laughs)
This time we introduced "The North Wind and the Sun." Were there any new words or expressions that you learned?
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