a few stories...

thought i would share a few stories written by students. these are by far the best i read out of about 60 stories. but it gives you a little bit of an idea of their English level. these stories were written by 3rd year students, all they received was a paper that said long, long ago...

First:

Long, long ago there was a small town. Crab’s family lived in the small town. They were living in peace. One day, Crab’s mother was killed by monkey. That made crab’s children sad. Crab’s children decided to arrange revenge.

After that they asked the bee, the chestnut and the Usu (a wooden bowl) to help. The made a plan. The bee will sting the monkey. The chestnut will jump to attack him. The usu will crush him. The plan was to kill the monkey.

Time was here for them to begin the plan. The chestnut is waiting in the irori (Japanese fire place). Monkey was coming to irori then chestnut attacked the monkey. The mokey was burned so monkey went to the big water pot. But the bee was waiting for him. The bee stung the monkey. The monkey was very surprised. Monkey went outside. But usu also was waiting on the roof. Usu broke the monkey’s body. The monkey died. They were very glad. The small town now became peaceful.

Second:

Long, long ago old parents lived in a small town. The old man went to mountain to work. The old woman was in home. His work was cutting bamboos. One day he found a golden bamboo. He said “oh. What’s that!?” And he cut it and he found a small girl.

She was very beautiful. He said “God gave her to me! Thank you very much!” He was very glad. After that he brought her to his home. The old woman said “Oh, she is very cute. Why do you have her?” He said “Because I found a god bamboo, after I cut it, she was there”. The thing made them happy. And they began to raise her.

After that, she grew big soon and became more beautiful. And they became rich. Why was it? The reason was that she came to their home and she came from the moon. So they became rich. And many kings wanted to marry her. But, she didn't want to marry.

One day she said “I have to go to the moon, sorry”. They said “Please, don’t go!” But she went to the moon. When she said “see you” she was crying. They were very sad, but she left very good medicine. It’s ‘hushinokusuri’.

One of the kings said “we should burn it on the highest mountain in Japan”. We call the highest mountain in Japan “Fujisan”. The sound of “fuji” which is the name of the mountain is close to ‘fushi’ which means that the people never die in Japan.

Third"

Long, long ago there were an old man and old woman. Two people were very good friends. Two people one day traveled all over the world. They enjoyed it very much. It is interesting for them to travel. So they were very happy.

But one morning…the old man died too tired from the trip. And old woman was very sad. Old woman cried forever. At last, old woman had much sorrow so she died. Two people went to heaven. Two people were very surprised in heaven, God cried.

Two people asked “What’s the matter?”
God, “You are very pitiful”.
Two people, “why?”.
God, “ You two were people were very good friends and your dream of a trip came true”. So now you two people live in heaven with young appearances”.
Two people, “Oh…really? Oh…Thank you!”
God disappeared.
Two people talked. We are happy because of young appearance and that we will live in heaven forever. Besides we can travel. So we are very happy. But we were very sad when we died. Now we are very happy. So, it is interesting for us to live in heaven. Because when we died we were sad but now we are very happy.