Indonesia kaya akan cerita rakyat, cerita rakyat tersebut bisa diubah menjadi cerita rakyat bahasa Inggris. Biasanya guru memberikan tugas untuk menceritakan cerita rakyat yang ada di daerah dan mengalihbahasakannya ke bahasa Inggris. Hal tersebut akan membantu untuk memperkaya kosakata murid.
Cerita rakyat sangat digemari sebagai legenda dengan peninggalan bersejarah. Dahulu, masyarakat menyampaikannya dari mulut ke mulut. Berikut 3 cerita rakyat bahasa Inggris terpopuler yang berasal dari Indonesia, diantaranya:
1. Story of Danau Toba
The story begins when a young man named Toba is fishing in a river. While fishing, Toba got a fish trapped by his fishing hook. It turns out that the fish could talk with a lady voice.
She asked Toba not to eat herself. Then, Toba looks after her.
Apparently, the fish incarnate into a beautiful lady and Toba wanted to have her as a wife. The lady gave an agreement not to tell others about his true form.
Marriage ensues, and they are blessed with a son called Samosir. One day, after Samosir grew up, he was ordered to deliver food to his father. However, because he wanted that food, he ate his father’s provisions.
In the end, Samosir met his father, there was little food left. Knowing that, Toba got angry and shouted at him that he is a fish boy.
Samosir ran to meet his mother. He told about the incident and the words his father shouted. Because Toba violated the agreement, disaster happened. A lot of water came out of the ground and turned the place into a lake.
2. Timun Mas and The Giant
Told about a long married couple without a child, they pray every day until the giant hears. A giant called Buto Ijo offered to give them a child. However, when the child grows up, the giant will take it back.
Forcefully, they agreed and got a cucumber that shows a golden color. These plants give children what they expect. Timun Mas was the name chosen by his parents. When Timun Mas reached the promised age, his parents betrayed the giant.
His parents directed Timun Mas to escape from the giant chase by carrying provisions. Timun Mas also left home before Buto Ijo came. But, the giant found out and trying to catch her frantically.
When she saw the giant walking closer, Timun Mas took cucumber seeds from his parents and threw them at the giant. Miraculously, it grows in the land of the snares, trapping the giant.
Next, Timun Mas takes salt and sprinkles it. Then, the salt transforms into the sea. Lastly, she threw the last item, a lump of shrimp paste that turned into dirty mud. Finally, Timun Mas survived and rejoined his parents.
3. Sangkuriang Legend
At some place, there lived a single mother and son. They are, Sangkuriang and Dayang Sumbi. Dayang Sumbi is very good at weaving. While Sangkuriang forages by hunting with a dog named Si Tumang.
For so many years, the three of them lived together. If Sangkuriang and the dog go hunting together, then Dayang Sumbi will wait at home. One day, his mother ordered Sangkuriang to hunt for the antelope’s heart.
In the hunt, they failed to hunt antelope. Then, Sangkuriang killed the dog and took its heart. When he brought the heart home, his mother was angry when she knew that it was a dog’s heart.
Sangkuriang didn’t know that Si Tumang was his father. Angrily, his mother hit Sangkuriang’s head with a dipper from the coconut shell. Sangkuriang was injured and angry. He left his mother to wander east.
Years after that incident, Sangkuriang met Dayang Sumbi and didn’t recognize her. Because of her beauty, Sangkuriang wants to marry her. Meanwhile, Dayang Sumbi recognized Sangkuriang because of the wound on his son’s head.
So, Dayang Sumbi finds a way to reject Sangkuriang’s intentions. Dayang Sumbi asked Sangkuriang to build a big boat before sunrise as a condition of marriage. Sangkuriang did that all night. But in the end, he failed to finish it.
He got angry and kicked the boat until it was thrown far away and fell upside down. Then, the boat was transformed into a boat-shaped mountain called Mount Tangkuban Perahu.
Demikian cerita rakyat bahasa Inggris yang berasa dari Indonesia. Pembaca bisa mengambil intisari dari pesan-pesan yang terdapat pada cerita. Ada pula versi lebih lengkap dan lebih panjang dari cerita-cerita tersebut.
Cerita populer ini telah dialih bahasakan dan dibuat lebih singkat. Melalui cerita rakyat bahasa Inggris, masyarakat bisa memperkaya kosakata atau vocabulary dan juga mempelajari grammar khususnya untuk masa lampau.