A book telling Vietnamese and Korean fairytales, named “The lazy boy is transformed into a cow”, will make its debut in Hanoi on December 28, the Korean Cultural Centre has said.

The book consists of 10 fairytales, which are well known by many Vietnamese and Korean people, such as Thanh Giong (Saint Giong) and Trau Cau (the Betal and the Areca tree) of Vietnam, and Truyen thuyet Dangun (the Legend of Dangun) of the Republic of Korea. 

Each story is illustrated by Vietnamese artists and written in both Vietnamese and Korean languages. The English version of the book is scheduled to be sent to major book fairs in the world in 2012, such as the Bologna book fair in Italy and the Frankfurt book fair in Germany. 

“The lazy boy is transformed into a cow” is the second book of a collection of bilingual Vietnamese-Korean fairytales. The first, “Starfruit”, was released in March this year. 

The Korean Cultural Centre said it hopes that those bilingual fairytales will help offspring of Vietnamese-Korean families in the RoK learn more about history and culture of both countries.

The Centre plans to present the book to the department of Korean studies at universities and libraries in Vietnam, as well as the Korean-Vietnamese families at the launch ceremony.

About 40,000 Vietnamese-Korean couples, out of about 150,000 worldwide, now live in the RoK. They find it hard to communicate the culture of each country due to language barriers within families.

Source: VNA