There was a man who often asked Hodja for advice. Usually Hodja thought the man's problems were not very important. One day he came to Hodja with this problem: "I have a headache. What should I do?"
Hodja replied, "I'm not sure, my friend, but I can tell you that recently I had a toothache. I had the tooth pulled out, and it doesn't bother me now."
A group of religious leaders got into an argument during a meeting. Half of the group insisted that it was proper to walk on the left side of a coffin as it was being carried to the cemetary. The other half claimed that the right side was proper.
They couldn't reach an agreement, so they decided to consult Hodja.
Hodja thought about the matter for a moment, and then he said, "My friends, left side or right side of the coffin doesn't really matter. What matters is outside or inside."
Raymond C. Clark
* The complete set of 40 stories is available from Pro Lingua Associates. ESOL/FL book publishers 15 Elm Street, Brattleboro, Vermont, 05301 USA e-mail: prolingu@sover.net Fax: 802 257 5117 Phone: 802 257 7779 Pro Lingua on the Web: http://www.bookworld.com/proling.htm
Raymond C. Clark is the director of the Department of Language Teacher Education at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and he holds the faculty rank of professor of Applied Linguistics. He has been in the field of English language teaching since 1963, and he has worked in a number of countries, including Turkey, where he met and married Ayla, Pakistan, Nigeria, Somalia, India.
GUnUn birinde iSveren ile anlaSamayan posta sendikasI grev kararI almIS. Grevin alabildiGine uzamasI sonucu da birCok kiSi eskiden olduGu gibi posta gUvercinleri edinip, onlarI haberleSmede kullanIr olmuSlar. Bizim Hoca ise, bir aGaCkakanI omzunda dolaStIrIyor ve gerekirse postasInI onunla gOnderiyormuS. Bu iSe akIl erdiremeyen mahalleli, "Hoca sen de neden herkes gibi gUvercin besleyip onu posta iSlerinde kullanmazsIn ?.." diyecek olmuS.
Hoca'nIn yanItI ise aCIkmIS. "Sizin gUvercinleriniz sadece postayI gOtUrUyor. Benim aGaCkakanIm ise hem postayI gOtUrUyor, hem de kapIyI CalIyor..."
K. Turgut Gursel (Gemi InsaatI '83) <tang@cadlab.tu-berlin.de>