The story of the white elephant

Some people in my class asked me to blog about the story behind the phrase "white elephant." I will try my best- here it is, to the best of my understanding, as told to me by friends in Thailand! I have checked this story out on the internet as well to make sure that it's reasonably accurate.

Background information- "white elephant" is a term commonly used in English to describe a useless gift. It is a gift that you don't really want. We sometimes have "white elephant" sales as well, which are like garage sales, where people sell all the things they don't want anymore.

The Story-

One legend associated with Buddha says that the night before his mother gave birth to him, she dreamed of a white (albino) elephant giving her a pure lotus flower. Thus, white elephants have historically been considered sacred in Thailand (which used to be called Siam). All white elephants were therefore the property of the King of Siam.

Since they were sacred, white elephants were not allowed to do any work. They had to be well-cared for, and they required a tremendous amount of resources to maintain. All white elephants were given great honor by the people.

If the King of Siam was pleased with one of his courtiers, he would give him a white elephant, along with money, land, and servants to take care of it. However, if the King was displeased with one of his courtiers, he would give him a white elephant, with no land or money to help take care of it. The courtier would then be required to care for the sacred white elephant out of his own resources. Since the elephant was sacred, the unfortunate courtier could not even put it to work in order to help earn money for its care. Because of the large amount of money required to care for the elephant, the courtier would soon be financially ruined and dishonored.

That is how the phrase "white elephant" came to mean "an unwanted gift."

Today, white elephants are still considered sacred in Thailand, and they still belong to the King of Thailand, who is also revered by the Thai people. However, the King of Thailand no longer gives the white elephants to people in order to show disfavor.

Here is a link to a video of sacred white elephants in a religious parade in Thailand. They are carrying gold Buddha statues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x59ENhwttnE&feature=related

There is also a story of a white elephant that carried the Buddha up to the site of a very large temple on a mountain near Chiang Mai. After it carried the Buddha up to the site of the temple, it dropped dead from exhaustion. Doi Suthep temple was built in its honor. Here is a link to a video about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FyOuhyw4Bs&feature=PlayList&p=9FFB04EEF91A9429&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1

Vocabulary- words with negative prefixes

displeased- not pleased
unfortunate- not fortunate
dishonored- not having honor or not showing honor
unwanted- not wanted
disfavor- not having favor

Vocabulary Practice- fill in the blanks with the vocabulary words

Once, there was a colony of ants. The queen ant told all the workers to go find food. However, one worker ant decided that he would rather go bowling! When the queen ant found out, she called the worker ant. "I am very _____________ with you," she said. "You have _____________ me! Now you must leave our colony and go into exile." The _____________ worker ant left the colony and wandered around outside. Soon, he felt very hungry. It started to rain, but he had no hole to hide in. He felt very sad. "I am cold, wet, and hungry. I'm ____________ by everyone in my colony, and I have the __________ of my queen. What should I do?" he thought to himself. Suddenly, he saw a river of water rushing towards the anthill! "Oh, no! I have to save my colony!" he exclaimed. He ran to some other ants to get help. When they saw the water, they all got together and pulled a piece of wood across the path of the rushing water. The wood diverted the water away from the anthill. The worker ant was a hero! The queen let him come home, and he always did his share of the work after that.

Grammar- using 'would'

There are many ways to use the modal verb (auxiliary verb) would.

1. Use it in a conditional statement with the word if, to describe an imaginary situation:
If I had a lot of money, I would travel the world.
I would travel to Europe if I could affort to.

2. Use it without if to describe a hypothetical or imaginary thought:
I would never eat a rat!

3. Use it to refer to repeated actions or states in the past tense. (Would is only used for this when the time period is clearly established.) This is how I used would in my blog today.

He would give him a white elephant.
The courtier would then be required to care for the elephant.
The courtier would soon be financially ruined.

Grammar Practice- read the following sentences. Decide how the modal verb would is used in each sentence- is it #1, #2, or #3 (see above)?

1. I would visit Italy this summer if I had the time.
2. When I was in first grade, I would often suck my thumb.
3. I would love to be an astronaut!
4. I would never go skydiving.
5. If I could fly, I would be a superhero.
6. My sister would often tell me what do to while we were growing up.

Would you eat live bugs?

The longer I lived in rural northern Thailand, the more food adventures I had. I ended up eating many kinds of insects and every kind of animal. When I visited one family, they were having snake meat curry from a snake that they had killed, and honey comb curry with some little bees still in it! I got a serious shock once when I visited a new friend and saw a large dead field rat on the table, waiting to be cooked for dinner. Pastor Lawan especially liked a type of meat that she called "nua sawan," which translates as "heavenly meat." After I tasted it, I decided that I liked it too! Then I asked the children what kind of meat it really was. It was dog meat! People from the Akha tribe in northern Thailand believe eating meat from black dogs will give them supernatural strength. They also eat cobra meat in order to sharpen their senses. I tried a little cobra curry once, but I was afraid to eat very much.

My most memorable food adventure happened when I was visiting a new friend named Mae La in a very small village. I had already learned to do many new things with her, such as making roof thatching and brooms out of dry grass. This time when I visited her, she had just caught a basket full of large cicadas in the jungle. She asked me to help her pull the wings off them, in order to prepare for frying them. Now, the idea of pulling wings off live, squirming, noisy insects did not make me very happy, but I agreed to help her. After the first three insects I got used to the horrible screeching noise they made as I pulled the wings off. Soon, I had filled a big bowl halfway with wingless cicadas, all scratching their little feet on the sides of the bowl trying to escape.

I'll never forget what happenend next. Mae La's husband came home from the fields. He joined us on the porch, and he smiled as he watched me, an American from New York, pulling wings off the cicadas. I guess he decided that the opportunity to tease me was just too good to pass up, because he commented, "You can eat them raw, too, you know." I was so confused- I knew that the cicadas don't die until you cook them. I had eaten fried cicadas before. "You do it like this," he said, and he picked a cicada out of the bowl. It screeched and waved its six tiny legs frantically in the air as he put it in his mouth alive! That cicada was still squirming and screeching as he began to chew it! I was so shocked! I didn't know what to do or say. He laughed at the expression on my face, and tried to hand me a cicada. "You have one," he urged me. Well, what would you have done? If you would have eaten the live cicada, then you are much more adventurous than me. I didn't refuse the local people's food very often, but I knew he was just teasing me. "No, way!" I exclaimed.

Vocabulary- verbs used to denote speech/vocalization

commented (to comment)- to make a remark
said (to say)- to express in words, to utter something aloud
screeched (to screech)- to make a high-pitched noise
laughed (to laugh)- to show amusement while producing a laughing noise
urged (to urge)- to exhort, to entreat, to try to get someone to do something
exclaimed (to exclaim)- to say something with suprise or strong emotion

Vocabulary Practice- fill in the blanks with the words

One afternoon when I was about eight years old, I was walking the dog with my sister Debbie. That time, I was holding the dog's leash and she was holding the pooper scooper, which was alreay half full from the morning walk. My father used to reuse the same pooper-scooper bags all day long to save money. My sister and I were having an argument.

"Ha, ha, you're so stupid," I ____________. "Leave me alone!" she ____________. Her face was getting really angry. Suddenly, she whacked me on the shoulder with the pooper scooper! The bag exploded, and the dog poop went all over my shirt and on my shoe. I was in complete shock for a moment. Then I ran towards my house. "Mommy!" I ____________. "Look what Debbie did to me!" "Oh, my goodness! Well, calm down," my mother ________. "Aren't you going to punish her? Make her clean it up," I ____________. My mother made her clean all of the poop off my brown shoe. "At least the shoe was brown," she ___________.

Moral of the story- never tease your sister while she is holding a pooper-scooper!

Grammar- reporting direct speech

When we report someone's speech, we can do it directly or indirectly. Reporting direct speech means that we write down exactly what the person said. When we do this, we use quotes, which look like this: " "

When we report direct speech, we need to use a verb for reporting speech. Some of the most common ones are said, asked, answered, exclaimed, yelled, cried, whispered, etc.

We can put the subject and verb (for reporting speech) before or after the quote. If we put them before the quote, we use a comma before we begin the quote. Everything the person said should go inside the quotes. We put all of the capitalization and punctuation for their sentences inside the quotes, so the sentences should start with a capital letter and end with the appropriate punctuation. All of this is inside the quotes!

Examples-
He said, "I don't feel very well."
She asked, "What's the matter?"

However, when we put the subject and verb after the quotes, the period at the end of the quotation will become a comma instead. All other punctuation, such as question marks or exclamation marks, remain the same.

Examples-
"I don't feel very well," he said.
"What's the matter?" she asked.

Grammar Practice- change the reported indirect speech to reported direct speech
Write each sentence two ways: one with the quote at the end, and one with the quote at the beginning.

example-
My mother said that I had to clean my room.
My mother said, "You have to clean your room."
"You have to clean your room," my mother said.

My sister said that she was going to have a baby.
My sister said, "I'm going to have a baby."
"I'm going to have a baby," my sister said.

Your turn!

1. My teacher said that I got an A on my English test.

2. My friend said that she is going on vacation next week.

3. My parents said that they are going to raise my allowance.

4. My brother said that I'm annoying.

5. I said that he is annoying, too.