[Publib] Storytelling in Native Languages
Magpie1950
Magpie1950 at charter.net
Tue Sep 5 17:54:24 EDT 2006
Hello,
I am Maggie Wright, the grand-daughter of Harold Bell Wright, an American
writer who in the late 1910s began gathering the legends of the Papago
Indian of the Sonoran Desert around Tucson.
His publishers, Harpers, published a book of about half of these tales in
1927 (Long Ago Told). We recently found the entire set of the original
handwritten legends and I have started posting them on a blog for all to
read and especially hope Storytellers will be interested. (The original
translations have been donated to the University of Arizona to join most of
HBW's other papers.)
You can view them at:
www.longagotold.blogspot.com.
I'd be very interested in your thoughts and suggestions.
Maggie Wright
-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Gustavo von
Bischoffshausen
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 8:11 AM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] Storytelling in Native Languages
Hello you wonderful people:
I am sending all the responses of the query I had about how to organize
native languages storytelling in the library I work in, Biblioteca España de
las Artes. This is a sort of public library (at least that is how I consider
it because it functions in a Cultural Center (Centro Cultural de San Marcos)
in downtown Lima, in a XVIII century building. The public will be mostly
adults but also young peopple. I will send information about this event as
you as it is finished.
Is any you interested in receiving this information?
Thank again you for this help.
Gustavo von Bischoffshausen
Director
Biblioteca España de las Artes (BEA)
Centro Cultural de San Marcos
6127000/5213
RESPONSES
We have done short picture books bilingually for children here in Toronto.
Basically the sentences are translated page by page n this case into English
from Italian. Ad lib and make the reading fun and entertaining. Counting
books and counting games can be done in an entertaining way using the same
method. I have done this for classes during school outreach and a Spanish
speaking staff came with me. Having two voices makes the reading more
interesting.
Elizabeth Lai
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Your program sounds tremendously exciting! I tell Swedish stories for
English-speaking audiences. A thing I've gotten great response on is to
tell the audience I am about to tell them a well-known fairy tale, but it
will be completely in Swedish. Their job is to guess which tale it is. As
I tell it, I make sure, through appropriate, large, descriptive movements
and facial expressions, and through pointing at items on display or in the
environment when necessary, that most listeners are able to make the
connection within the first minute or so of the 10-minute story. Of all the
stories I tell, that one is the favorite of both me and most audiences.
It's my favorite because, since I was enchanted by trying something like
this but personally hate to be left out of things, I made very sure that the
story was very recognizable and that the audience could be successful right
away. It's a favorite of audiences because they get to listen to a strange
language and falso eel successful at understanding a little about it.
Good luck! I'd love to learn more about your program, and to hear how it
turns out.
Karen Carlson
Children's Program Specialist
Youth Services Division
Austin Public Library
(512) 974-3944 or (512) 974-3949
karen.carlson at ci.austin.tx.us
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----------------------------------------------------
I am Maggie Wright, the grand-daughter of Harold Bell Wright, an American
writer who in the late 1910s began gathering the legends of the Papago
Indian of the Sonoran Desert around Tucson.
His publishers, Harpers, published a book of about half of these tales in
1927 (Long Ago Told). We recently found the entire set of the original
handwritten legends and I have started posting them on a blog for all to
read and especially hope Storytellers will be interested. (The original
translations have been donated to the University of Arizona to join most of
HBW's other papers.)
You can view them at:
www.longagotold.blogspot.com.
I'd be very interested in your thoughts and suggestions.
Maggie Wright
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-------------------------------
Hello Gustavo,
I think this is a wonderful idea! I wonder if you could find speakers of
the aboriginal languages (maybe even storytellers) who could present the
story in an interesting and perhaps animated fashion, maybe with native
dress too? (to prevent the boredom) one page at a time, then the Spanish
version of that same page and back and forth. We have done that with
Spanish and English. It gives everyone the flavor of the aboriginal
language, while they can follow along with the story in the language they
understand.
I would say, in regard to the suggestions you mentioned below, that a live
person dramatizing the story might be more fun than a written leaflet, or
a tape. But a tape would at least let the people hear the language, if you
can't find a native speaker.
Good luck with this project. Let me know how it goes!
Cyndy Gartside
Phoenix Public Library
Mesquite Branch
(602) 534-1434
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don't know if words from the aboriginal languages are familiar to your
audiences, but here in California we often tell stories in English using
Spanish words periodically. the first time the Spanish word is used it is
explained in the context of the story and after that it is used as part of
the text. Depending on the audience and their familiarity with English and
Spanish we use more or less of the unfamiliar language. In this way, we get
the sense of the story's original language and can tell stories to an
audience that is mono-lingual or bi-lingual. And we use the words from the
story's original language that are most important -- names, sounds, actions
and listeners hear not only the story, but the poetry and sense of the
language.
Hope this is helpful
Jeanne Kelly O'Grady
Youth Services Outreach Librarian
Santa Cruz Public Libraries
Santa Cruz, California 95060
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once saw two storytellers tell the same story, taking turns, to show how the
same story existed in both african-american and jewish-american folk tales.
One would say a sentence or give a brief incident, and then the other would
give the parallel. It wasn't boring at all, in fact it was fascinating
because you were able to see the similarities and differences in the tales
right away, and you didn't lose the thread of the story. Would something
like that work for your stories? You could alternate lines and work out
gestures to be similar.
If no storyteller speaks the aboriginal language, I have two more ideas that
assume someone can work out a few phrases:
Perhaps you could use the aboriginal language to give dialogue, and repeat
in spanish? "So and so said 'aboriginal language phrase' [pause] 'spanish
language phrase'"
I have seen storytellers very effectively teach the listeners to repeat a
line in another language, and put parts in the story where the listeners use
that phrase, or have a call/response at the beginning of the story where
listeners use a phrase in another language. There is an interesting
discussion of this at
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/afrstory.htm.
Often stories are told in translation with names and significant phrases in
the original language. This honors the original language, introduces young
listeners to the sound of that language, but lets the storyteller maintain
the flow of the story. Would that work in your situation?
sawyer at noblenet.org
Gustavo, I think you could get some great answers to this from the
storytelling community. The National Storytelling Network
http://www.storynet.org/ might be a good start (and really they are
international). The most successful bilingual storytelling concerts I've
attended (English/Spanish and English/American Sign Language, mostly) have
essentially used two tellers, who generally practice together.
One teller, in the original language, tells the story for about 1 or 2
minutes. The second teller, the interpreter, then translates the first
language in a storytelling way. Occasionally, this will be the same person.
The alternating telling can be quite moving. But it does, generally, take
practice or at least interpreters who are very familiar with storytelling.
Transcribing all the stories would be a labor of love and a wonderful
thing.....but I think you would lose the "storytelling" flavor by having
only a second printed versions of the stories.
Dale, formerly involved on the edges of professional storytelling..
DaleMcNeill
dale.mcneill at gmail.com
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