William Chin

Monday, January 12, 2009

Kong Rong Rang Li

Recently, you have been reading some short stories for your Kumon's homework (3A level).


Some of the ancient Chinese stories are very inspiring and touching. It made me realize how important it is to cultivate certain good values and qualities in you while still young.

Here, taking this story as an example : kong rong rang li

Read the passage as below :-
























In summary, this story was about a 4-YEAR OLD boy, named Kong Rong voluntarary picked the smallest pear among the all, and gave away the bigger pears to his other big brothers. His reasoning : I'm the smallest in the family, so I should eat the smallest pear.


MY MY, this is just a 4-year old boy. Isn't what he think and act incredible?
Being a keh-poh mom, of course I have many questions for you here...



Mom : So, which pear are your going to pick here?



You : (without a single hesitation) I will pick the biggest pear.



Mom : Don't you think you should give the biggest pear to your big brother, like kong rong did?



You : Emm...but I want to eat the biggest pear mah.



Mom : But kor-kor is bigger than you, you should give the biggest pear to him wo.



You : I know, but why I must give the biggest pear to him?



Mom : Cause you should show some respects to the people who is older than you lo.



You : Ok, I can give the biggest pear to kor-kor then.



Mom : That's a good boy. How about chocolate cookies? Will you give kor-kor the biggest cookies too?



You : No, I want the biggest cookies.



Mom : Isn't that we've discussed about it just now? You should give the bigger portion to the people who is bigger than you.



You : But Kong Rong didn't give the biggest cookies to his big brothers wo.



Mom : Well, if the story goes on to cookies, he would too.



You : But I have given the biggest pear to kor-kor already, I should get the biggest cookies this time. (facial expression : it's not fair)



Mom : (speechless)



Emm...maybe Kong Rong won't give away the biggest chocolate cookies to his big brothers, if cookies is his favourite food. Would he? I really have no idea what a small boy would do in the ancient time.



Time change and so does the world. The children in today's world are more self-center and subsequently, grow up following a more individualistic path than the past generation did. If we want to live in a better world, I think certain values and qualities shouldn't have faded out like this, right.