Let's do Japanese reading! Introducing the Ugly Duckling!
Hello everyone.
2023 is already may. It's so fast, isn't it?
Are you enjoying GW?
This year, the corona regulations have been eased, so there will be a lot of people who are going to travel.
Have a nice holiday!
Also, it's called May disease, and it's easy to get sick in May, so please take good care of your physical condition!
Well then, let's have fun studying Japanese today as well!
"Ugly Duckling"
One day, a mother duck laid an egg.
The mother duck spent days and days incubating the eggs, waiting for the babies to come out.
The mother duck protected the eggs in both rain and wind.
And finally, Piyopiyo! Piyopiyo! And energetic children came out one after another.
However, there was one child with a different color among them.
All the other ducklings are yellow, small and fluffy, but this one is gray and big. The color of the beak is also black, which is different from everyone else.
The mother duck loved each child equally.
A few days later, Aunt Duck, a relative, came to see how the children were doing.
Auntie: "Well, how ugly is she? All the other girls are cute."
Mother : "But he's a very good swimmer."
Auntie: "Hmm. I see."
When the mother duck was present, the aunt duck loved the ugly duckling, but when the mother duck disappeared,
Auntie: "You are ugly, so go play alone over there."
Then he teased the ugly duckling and only loved the other children.
Eventually, the ugly duckling, who was bullied by his brothers and sisters, finally decided to leave the house alone.
Duckling: "I shouldn't be here..."
The ugly duckling slipped out of the house when the mother duck wasn't looking.
As I was walking alone, I came across a house.
An old woman lived there.
Grandmother: "Oh, are you separated from your family? Poor thing. You should stay at home."
The kind old woman let the ugly duckling into the house.
However, in this house lived a nasty cat and a chicken.
Cat: "You're a duckling? I've never seen a duck so big and gray."
Chicken: "Hahaha, that's really ugly."
Cat: "What can you do? Meow! Can you meow like this?"
Chicken: "Can you lay eggs like me?"
The ugly duckling shook its head.
Cat: "If you can't do anything, you can't stay here!"
Chicken: "Yes yes yes! Get out!"
The cat and the chicken drove the ugly duckling away.
The ugly duckling was frightened and ran away.
After a lot of running we ended up near a big lake away from the town.
The Ugly Duckling had nowhere to go, so he lived there alone.
A few months later, a harsh winter came.
When I was alone and freezing, I looked up at the sky and saw a big swan flying.
Duckling: "Wow! It's beautiful. I want to fly like that too."
The beautiful, big swan was the sustenance of the ugly duckling.
But the cold became more and more severe, and at last the duckling collapsed from the cold.
A kind-hearted woodcutter saw this and helped the duckling, but the duckling thought that he would be bullied again and ran away from the woodcutter's house.
Duckling always thought that everyone bullied him because he was ugly.
Then winter passed and spring came, without friends or family.
It was a sunny morning.
The ugly duckling got up and went to the lake to drink.
What then?
Isn't it a big and beautiful swan that was reflected in the lake!
The duckling was actually a swan.
Just as they were astonished, another swan came and asked them to be friends.
The ugly duckling gladly joined them and lived happily ever after.
How was your talk?
This is a famous fairy tale by Andersen.
I find it very interesting that the bullied duckling was actually a swan.
It's nice to have friends at the end and end with a happy ending.
In the story, the baby gray swan is said to be "ugly", but from a human perspective, both baby ducks and baby swans are cute, aren't they?
Especially since I love animals, just seeing baby animals makes me happy!
Do you like animals? Also, what kind of animals do you like?
We would love to hear from you!
Well, that's all for today.
Have a great week!
