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Arts & Communication Using multiple languages within an improvised fairytale

面非常想要去跟大家一起跳舞。但是它自己是不被 Mandarin, and he could speak every language in the whole
接受的，它只能一个人在海里边漂荡，漂了很久都 world – he could speak anything in the whole world.
没有碰到其他的任何生物。慢慢地它开始想要去放
弃希望了。 2.5.11. The English storyteller
[The little jellyfish listens to the story and feels hurt He became famous worldwide – he became known as the
because, deep inside, it wants to dance with everyone. But little boy who can laugh in all languages.
because it is not accepted, it can only swim along in the Below is a group member’s verbal reflection in response
ocean. It has not encountered any creature for a long time. to the fairytale:
Gradually, it is beginning to give up hope.] “I love that (the languages) include both Mandarin
and English because there are some tensions
2.5.5. The English storyteller continues the tale
between these two worlds. How beautiful that the
The little boy was sour faced – never a smile. And everyone story was in both English and Mandarin, because
was desperate – because he was stopping the entire world that brings us together in such a beautiful and
from laughter. Everyone stopped laughing. poetic way.”
There was none on the entire planet with a smile on Here is the English storyteller’s response to the fairytale:
their face or a laugh. “I’m very glad to have the whale - because I had nowhere
to go. I really was not quite sure where it was gonna go,
2.5.6. The Mandarin storyteller continues the tale so I thought, oh, a whale, fantastic. It’s a funny thing.”
听到了什么声音。原来是一只大鲸鱼在海里漂了过 Here is the dancer’s reflection:
来。鲸鱼自如地在海洋里面随着海水漂流。水母见了 “I just kept moving in response to the drums. My
之后慢慢地贴了上去。
movements were so different and inspired. Where are
[The little jellyfish hears a sound – it turns out to be these movements coming from? I felt like I had a Chinese
a whale. The whale swims freely in the ocean. The little character inside of me.”
jellyfish sticks itself to the whale]
Here is the Mandarin teller’s reflection:
2.5.7. The English storyteller continues the tale “I wanted to connect to the story (by changing to
English).”
This simply would not do – and this was so tragic, so sad,
so morass. Then, a little girl came, and she walked up to Here is a summary provided by the conductor or group
this sad sack boy and she (the English teller stops here leader of the session:
using the pause to pass his turn onto the Mandarin teller). “We did start off with diverse responses to the world
after a pandemic, all the way from the tragedy of climate
2.5.8. The Mandarin storyteller continues the tale change to a whole country that’s coming down with
(in English) COVID-19.”
The whale – the boy goes along with the whale, and they The conductor then reported on the public political
speak a language that human beings cannot understand conflicts that had emerged. He continued:
– they could not understand that they were having fun “and yet we have this freedom... to come together and be
with each other, and the whale spoke (the Mandarin teller together and make so many wonderful metaphors and
passes the tale to the English teller after a pause). stories. It seems to me that we’ve transformed ourselves
2.5.9. The English storyteller continues the tale with resilience to go on. It’s beyond hope - it’s a concrete
fairytale in which we can begin to laugh and feel joy
The little boy was taken by surprise that the whale was again.”
speaking to him, and he could understand. And so, the
whale said (the English teller continues in made-up 3. Analysis and discussion
language of sounds only). These observations point to the possibility that important
That meant that he was going to put the little boy on his communication can occur in small groups through arts-
spout, and he blew him very high into the air, and when he based expression and illuminate how such a communication
did, the little boy started laughing. process can develop. An important positive result from
the series of improvisations was that these participants,
2.5.10. The Chinese storyteller continues in English who were new to what had been going on in each other’s
And he would speak English, and he would speak countries and did not share a common language, found a

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 10 doi: 10.36922/ac.2079