Another Tiger and Fox
There is an old Chinese story about a fox that was captured by a tiger:
The Fox said to the Tiger,“You can’t eat me because the gods have made me the leader of all the animals.” The Tiger did not believe him but the Fox said, “Follow me and see if any animal challenges me.” The Tiger agreed and followed directly behind the Fox as the Fox began his walk through the forest. To the Tiger’s amazement it turned out to be exactly as the Fox had said. Not a single animal they encountered challenged the Fox. In fact, every animal they met fled in sheer panic. After several such encounters the Tiger finally agreed that the Fox was indeed the leader of all the animals and let him go.
posted by Whispering Walls at 9:55 am
11 Comments:
... and foxes are damn clever wee things..
Every dog trainer should know this story. You know, alpha male/female and all that.
Good point, ED!
Ahhh... so that's where the tale of the Gruffalo comes from.
You seem to be right Mopsa - I didn't know the Gruffalo story
Like this and the previous tale.
You know, WW, I was thinking about this story and I have decided to use it in my training classes.
I hope it works well for you, ED!
This famous idiom is called Hu2 Jia3 Hu3 Wei1 狐假虎威(the number signifies the tone; literally Fox Pretends Tiger Might)
p/s:
1 -- first tone, flat
2 --second tone, rise
3 -- third tone, fall rise
4 -- fourth tone, falling tone
Have fun!
Oh thank you for that, Janet. I'm relearning some basic Mandarin so am concentrating on my tones!
Mandarin:
1) BBC Real Chinese website-- superb
2) BBC Learning Zone website, enter Mandarin or Chinese, and you'll get fantastic videoclips. Watch some animations (Wind and the Sun; the Butterfly Lover; Country rat and City rat...) You'll love it.
3) BBC Active book + CD, very new, is superb. I'm currently using this book for my lessons. I like the fact that the spoken Mandarin is pretty fast (i.e. at normal speed), unlike most CDs for beginners.
I don't mind paying BBC for all these quality stuff.
Post a Comment
<< Home