‘Here is a story! Story it is’: how fairytales are told in other tongues
From Korea to Germany to Nigeria, every culture has its own version of ‘once upon a time’ – and most are more interesting than the English
In Tamil, folk stories and fairytales, the sort that grandparents tell grandchildren before bed, often begin, “In that only place…”. In another Indian language, Telugu, stories start “Having been said and said and said…”. In English, of course, it is “Once upon a time…”.
Chitra Soundar, an Indian-British author and storyteller, was thinking about her grandmother’s stories, which always began with the classic Tamil opener, when she asked people on Twitter to share how stories began in their languages.