Mungkin acara/kegiatan mendongeng orangtua (bapak/ ibu) dengan anaknya sekarang sudah tergantikan dengan adanya gadget teknologi canggih sekarang, namun ternyata kebiasaan ini memiliki nilai positif, salah satunya adalah membangun hubungan dari aspek psikologis antara si orangtua terhadap putra putrinya. Manfaat lain yang bisa diperoleh adalah menanamkan nilai moral dengan hikmah yang ada dalam dongeng atau cerita yang dibacakan/ diceritakan tersebut, tergantung dari pilihan judul dongeng yang akan digunakan menjadi bahan materinya, misalnya kisah 25 nabi/rasul, sahabat nabi, bahkan sampai hikayat ataupun dongeng, apalagi bangsa Indonesia ini memiliki khasanah cerita rakyat yang sangat beragam dan melimpah.
Nah, bagi anda yang sedang mempelajari writing (menulis) dalam Bahasa Inggris, dongeng atau cerita termasuk kedalam genre Narrative text. Jenis teks ini memiliki tujuan to entertain/ to amuse dengan menyisipkan pesan moral ataupun hikmah (moral value) dengan harapan ada penanaman nilai-nilai kehidupan untuk membentuk manusia yang berkepribadian/ berkarakter.
Berikut adalah contoh teks naratif:
The legend of Tangkuban Perahu (Sangkuriang)
Very
long time ago in West Java, there lived a king, named Prabu Sungging Pabangkara. He was good ruler. He liked hunting in the forest very much.
In
the forest, there lived she-pig, actually a cursed goddess. One day,
she came out of her hiding place looking for water. There she saw a coconut shell filled with water. Expecting it to be a fresh water, she drank it, having no suspicious that it was king’s urine left there the day before when he went hunting.
The
consequence was very strange. She became
pregnant. Few months later she gave birth to a very pretty girl. When the king
was hunting again in the forest, he saw the girl and was attracted by her beauty. He took her to his place, and then he called her Dayang Sumbi and treated her as his own daughter. Time passed and Dayang Sumbi grew up into a
beautiful girl. She was fond of weaving.
One
morning as she was weaving, her weaving spool flew out of the window to the
field. Because she was very tired, she mumbled, whoever is willing
to help me pick up the spool. I’ll treat her as my sister if she is a girl. If
he is a man, I’ll treat him as my husband. These words were
heard by a dog, called Tumang, actually cursed god
too. He immediately picked
up the spool and gave
it to Dayang Sumbi. Seeing the dog had
helped her, she fainted. The god had decided for her to undergo the fate. She became pregnant and a short time afterwards she gave birth
to healthy strong son whom she called Sangkuriang.
Sangkuriang became a handsome
young man, as time went by. Likes his grandfather, he was fond of hunting in the forest and Tumang
was faithful friend when roaming the woods. He didn’t realize that Tumang was his father. One
day, when the dog didn’t obey him to chase the pig, Sangkuriang was very angry and killed the dog and cut up his flesh into pieces and took it home to
his mother. For a moment Dayang Sumbi was speechless and took a spool and flung it at him.
This
left a scar on the spot. Then Dayang Sumbi sent him away. Sangkuriang left and wandered through the woods. He walked for years. Finally he returned to
his native place, but did not recognize it any longer. At the end of a vast rice field, he noticed a house and saw a young girl sitting at
her weaving-loom. He approached her and was charmed by her beauty. He was unaware that she was his own mother. Dayang Sumbi had been given
eternal beauty by the gods which was why she looked young forever. She looked at him and noticing his good looks, she promised to
marry him.
They
made plans for their wedding day, but one day she
discovered the scar on his forehead. She knew that he was her own son who had
come back to his village. She made an effort
to make him understand that marriage between them was impossible, but Sangkuriang refused to accept it. She had an idea and aid to him “All right, you
shall marry me if only you can dam up the citarum river and build a vessel all in one night.”
Sangkuriang agreed and started
to work by using his magic powers and his praying to the gods for
help. To prevent the marriage, before Sangkuriang finished his work, she stretched the red veil which
covered her head over the eastern side of the plain. Through her magic powers, the red light spread over the landscape, giving the impression that the sun was rising and that time was up. Angrily, Sangkuriang kicked the vessel
which was almost finished upside down. Sometimes later the vessel became the mountain of Tangkuban Perahu on the northern side
of Bandung.
CHECKING YOUR UNDERSTANDING ABOUT STORY ABOVE
1.What does the text tell us about?
2.What is the type of the text above? Mention the generic
structure of the text!
3.Where does the story take place?
4.Who was Raden Sungging Pebangkara?
5.
What did Dayang Sumbi look like?
6. What is the purpose of the text above?
7. “She looked at him..” What does
the underlined word refer to?
6.
