Well, it all depends on what you understand by international! I wasn't actually jetting anywhere further than Salisbury, but I was telling a story in two languages, neither of which was English. As part of SWGGS Languages Day, I was hired to tell in French and German, and on reflection i thought it would be better for all concerned if I told one story in both languages at the same time - that is to say, giving my listeners twice the chance to comprehend what was going on. [That's the way I saw it, and I hope that's the way they perceived it - I haven't had any explicit feedback yet...]
I chose Hansel und Gretel [or Jeannot et Margot, if you prefer], because it has a simple structure and is extremely well-known - though I began from the notion of Hunger driving parents to wish to get rid of their children, and only dropped the names in after the first five minutes. I also had some mischief with the gender roles, suggesting what an exception it was that Hansel, the boy, should have the bright idea about dropping the pebbles to show the way home, and making the witch say that she was a semi-feminist, because she was choosing to eat the boy first - a semi-feminist, because of course she was using the girl to do the cooking!
I also made great play with the rising of the moon, illuminating the pebbles, and managed to use good French and German phrases to emphasise the kick up the bum that Gretel gives the witch, to push her into the oven.
As a wind-down, I told them a story in English for the last 5 minutes, the one that I call Mr Wodjersay, but which I originally read at the age of 15, at school, in German: Kannitverstan by J.P. Hebel, the text of which can be found here. [I re-locate it to C19 London and modify it a little - but it seems to me a fine story about linguistic comprehension!]
At least I was asked whether I would be available for next year's Languages Day!
