Let's read Japanese online reading material! A famous proverb will appear!
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Today, I would like to introduce some Japanese reading materials that you can do alone at home while learning Japanese.
Introducing "The frog that lives in the well".
Please enjoy it until the end!
"The frog that lives in the well"
Once upon a time there lived a little frog in a deep well.
The frog was looking at the sky from the well every day.
During the day the clouds sway, and at night the stars twinkle.
The frog spent peaceful days looking at such a beautiful sky.
Frog always thought that the sky above his well was the whole world.
One day, a little bird came and rested for a while at the well.
The frog asked the little bird.
Frog: "Hello. Mr. Bird! Where are you from? We've never met, right? Why?"
The little bird answered while wiping his sweat.
Little bird: "I've been flying all the time. It took me a month to fly here from the big grasslands in the north. I was so tired that I was looking for a place to drink water."
Frog: "Hahaha!! Don't lie! The sky is only the size of this well, you know? It wouldn't take a month to fly through this sky!"
Little bird: "Yeah! Frog, you're wrong! The sky is so much bigger that you can't even see the edge! Under the sky, there are beautiful meadows, forests, and a big ocean! You can't go to the edge of the sky even if you cast it."
Hearing that, the frog laughed and said,
Frog: "Hahaha. Kotori-san, I've been living in this well since I was a tadpole (when the frog was a kid). I watched the sky from here every day, so no one knows more about the sky than I do." Yo! I know I'm a star in the sky, and I can't be wrong!"
Little bird: "Oh, what you see every day from the well is just a part of the sky."
Frog: "Huh!! If you say so, let's jump out and see if the sky is that big!!"
The frog is Byun! I jumped and tried to get out of the well.
Then what do you think?
Outside the well there was green grass and beautiful flowers of many colors, and the frog was very surprised.
There is a big mountain in the distance, and a big river flows from the top of the mountain to the bottom.
It looks like the sun will set soon.
The western sky is bright orange.
Many clouds are slowly flowing over the mountains, and you can't see how far they go.
The frog was so frightened that he could not speak with his eyes and mouth wide open.
After a while, the frog said with twinkling eyes.
Frog: "Wow! It's really beautiful! The world outside the well was so beautiful! The sky was so wide! I can't see the edge!"
Kotori: "Is that so?"
Frog: "Kotori-san, I was wrong! I learned a lot!"
Kotori: "Hahaha. If you stay in the well for a long time, you can't see much, so your thinking will become narrow. You'd better see things, and you'll see how clear the sky is and how big the land is.The world we live in is more beautiful than you think."
Frog: "Yes. Thanks for telling me!"
After that, the frog went out every day and saw many things.
There are many discoveries every day, and it seems that he has become able to spend more enjoyable days.
How was your talk?
The "frog in the well" that I introduced today is a Chinese fable.
From this story, the historical idiom that was created is the word `` Isoko no Frog ''.
Some of you may have heard this and clicked.
that's right! In Japan, there is a proverb, "The frog in the well."
In Japanese, it is often followed by ``The frog in the well does not know the great sea.
It refers to people who are trapped in their own narrow knowledge and ideas and cannot see the important part of things (the wide world).
Therefore, if you say "You're a frog in a well!", it has a negative connotation of "You're a narrow-minded person."
Also, have you ever heard the phrase "However, the depth of the sky is known" after "The frog in the well does not know the great sea"?
It seems that it was also used in dramas, so some of you may have heard of it.
However, the original proverb from China does not have such a continuation, and it seems that the Japanese made it up without permission.
It's fun to read a story focusing on one proverb or expression like this!
Well, that's all for today!
I will be introducing various stories, so please come and visit this blog!
