Context: AL is one of my best friends that I grew up with, and I always turn to him for life advice or just to have a person to listen to when I feel emotional distress. I was telling him how I felt so lost during quarantine and a little depressed because of the way I had to juggle my workload and living almost in isolation, and he gave listened and told me a Chinese proverb that related to my situation to help me out.

用一个筷子吃饭的人是饿的

Roman Phonetic: “Yong yige kaizi chifan de ren shi e de”

• Transliterated Proverb:
  • yong: use
  • yige: one
  • kaizi: chopstick
  • chifan: eat food
  • de: *a possessive participle*, roughly means “those who” in this case
  • shi: Are
  • e: hungry

Full Translation: This literally means “those who use one chopstick to eat food are hungry”. However, the looser more accurate translation would be to make sure you have two chopsticks before eating your food or to find balance in your life. 

Explanation: Andy heard this proverb from his Chinese school, and he told it to me when I told him I felt like I was being overwhelmed. My sleep schedule and eating habits were not the best because I was juggling all the work I had to do, so he told me this proverb to explain that I should start with fixing my sleep, which draws an analogical parallel to the chopsticks in the proverb. The way he explains it, “in order to eat a meal, you have to have two chopsticks first. The same goes for dealing with our lives every day. In order to deal with all the work you feel overwhelmed doing, you first have to take care of yourself. Don’t be nocturnal and sleep at least 8 hours if you can, and don’t just eat one meal a day. You have to start with fixing the small things, and then you can move on to the big ones. You’ll feel much better once you’ve created a routine, only then can you begin to find balance in your life”. Whenever I would open up to him about important things that were happening in my life, he would always refer to the proverb first to make sure that I was taking care of myself.

Thoughts: I’ve heard this proverb before from my parents, but we’ve always interpreted the underlying looser meaning to mean those who eat with one chopstick are hungry fools. I’ve always thought that the meaning was more of a “look before you leap” type of proverb, warning people to be prepared before they enter situations. To me, the way my parents told the proverb showed me that they personally value teaching me to always be prepared before things happen. The way my friend told it to me showed me that he values having a routine and starting each day prepared by starting with the small things. Personally, I think that I value both sides of the proverbs, and have followed my friend’s advice.

Context: I asked my coworker if she could help me with my folklore collection and if she knew any proverbs that she could share. She gave me an example of one that her older sister used to tell her all the time.

因噎废食

Roman Phonetic: “Yin ye fei shi”

• Transliterated Proverb:
  • yin: because
  • Ye: choke
  • fei: abandon or give up
  • shi: food

Full Translation: The literal translation is “because choke abandons food”, with the meaning behind it meaning giving up food because of the fear of choking.

Explanation: The meaning behind this proverb is to say that one does not simply stop eating food just because there is the possibility of choking. The broader application would be to not let fear stop someone from living their life. This proverb was very important to my coworker when she was nervous about big decisions in her life in high school and college, and her older sister would tell her this proverb to tell her to just go for things because there is a risk in everything, but if she never took those risks, she would never be able to start to accomplish anything. 

Thoughts: I found this proverb pretty inspirational and applicable to my life as well. It is also similar to a proverb my mom would tell me about not worrying too much about what could go wrong and focus more on how to do things right. My coworker said this proverb to me on my first day of work when I was a little nervous about interacting with customers. The context she used was to tell me to go out and just talk to the customers and to greet them without thinking too much about what bad things could happen. The proverb also gives insight into Chinese culture, because there is often an environment that creates go-getter attitudes. 

Context: My father has always told me Chinese proverbs about how to be a good, successful person in life. This specific proverb was one that was widely used in China. In the city that my father grew up in, proverbs were constantly used to give life advice, and this proverb is one that my grandparents had told him. 

学好三年, 学坏三天

Roman Phonetic: “Xue hao san nian, xue huai san tian”

• Transliterated Proverb:
  • xue: learn
  • hao: good (can refer to habits or nature)
  • huai: bad (can also refer to habits or nature)
  • san: three
  • nian: year
  • tian: day

Full Translation: Learning to be good takes three years, learning to be bad takes three days. This refers to habits and nature also and doesn’t mean that it actually takes three years or three days to be good or bad. The three years and three days in the proverb are there to show that learning to be good is hard and takes a lot of time and self-control while learning to be bad is a lot easier than that. 

Explanation: My father grew up in Changsha, Hunan, and his family didn’t have much at the time. My grandparents knew the value of education and would use proverbs to teach my father. This specific proverb was used to tell my father that the value of one good test score or one good day of hard work is easy, but doing well over a long period of time is hard to maintain. This is opposed to taking it easy, as that takes no effort and everyone wants to take it easy all the time. This created an environment of hard work and maintained effort for him in his childhood. The proverb is very important for him because it is a part of his character today, and reminds him of how he got to where he is today. When he told me the proverb, he used it in the same way as my grandparents, often referring to good work habits when it comes to school and work. He also adds in the emphasis of the second part of the proverb, stating it is easy to go astray and do things that are fun and easy in the short term, and developing bad habits is easy to do.

Thoughts: Growing up, my parents had always reminded me of the importance of hard work and good habits. Proverbs like this were often told to me and my brother. I often heard this proverb in middle school and high school, when my parents would remind me to keep up my hard work after getting good grades or making any accomplishments. While this proverb can be interpreted to mean not to do bad things, it was used more to encourage me to continue to do well, as doing well is not what is hard, but keeping up good work for a long time is what is hard. I am extremely grateful for my parents teaching me this proverb, as I am constantly reminded by habit to do things well multiple times over a long period. It has also lead me to not take things easy because those can quickly become bad habits in my life.