With the help of my old pal 李文华/ Lǐ Wén Huá, aka Mr. Huá, I have collected together a handful of Chinese proverbs that can help keep our Chinese studies on the straight and narrow. I will begin with a couple of proverbs, 谚语/yànyǔ, which suggest that we take the long view during this learning process.
The first one is: 冰冻三尺，非一日之寒／bīng dòng sān chǐ fēi yī rì zhī hán. It basically translates, as one metre of ice doesn’t come from one day of cold. Or as us English-speaking folk might more likely interpret it; Rome wasn’t built in a day. It could be used in a situation where someone’s high level of Chinese is just being put down to the fact he or she is intelligent. The saying would stress that: “Yes, she might be clever, but… (cue phrase) it still took hard work to get to this level of Chinese. It didn’t happen overnight.” Indeed!
The second goes along the same sort of lines but emphasizes the need for the student to get the foundations right, and then to build upon them. This one is: 一步一个脚印／yī bù yī gè jiǎo yìn, and means to take things step-by-step, slowly but surely. It can be used when advising someone about how to approach their Chinese studies: 学汉语你应该～／xué hànyǔ nǐ yīnggāi~. With all the pinyin, annoying tones, different forms of de(的／地／得) and uses of le (了) that we face at the beginning (and beyond), this can be a tricky perspective to keep hold of.
The third phrase is the one I like most, due to its structure and emphasis. For me, there is nothing more important in teaching or learning than the aspect of review. But so many teachers ignore it, and many students let it slide, as we get bogged down in a never-ending stream of new vocabulary. This four character idiom, 成语/chéngyǔ, goes like this: 温故(而)知新／wēn gù (ér) zhī xīn. The literal translation is warm the past, know the new. It can be read in the sense of needing to understand history so one is able to understand the present, but for our purposes it just emphasizes the importance of review.
温/wēn is commonly used today as the adjective, warm. In the past it was used as a verb, to warm something up, which also carried the connotation of refresh or review. In formal writing today review can still be written as 温习／wēnxí. To hammer home this point about the importance of focused study, let’s consider the life of the diligent student. Everyday the conscientious student must: 埋头苦学/ mái tóu kǔ xué, which translates as bury head, hard study. This chéngyǔ can carry the negative meaning of being a slave to the teacher and the book. More fundamentally, however, it emphasizes the importance of getting your head down and putting in the hard work of learning – in this instance – Chinese. Something that I am sure we are all fighting with.
Those of us who are not writing Chinese characters by hand take a hit from this next phrase. This one simply goes: 眼过千遍，不如手过一遍／ yǎn guò qiān biàn bùrú shǒu guò yībiàn. It says that to look [at a Chinese character] a thousand times, is not even as good as writing once. Now I agree that learning Chinese characters, 汉字／hànzì, is utterly indispensible when trying to master this language. However, for those of us learning Chinese as a second language, the modern world does offer us an alternative to handwriting these characters. We are now able to use computers and mobile phones to write Chinese.
I acknowledge that handwriting increases our ability to remember new characters, but it is also exceptionally time consuming. This is time that in my opinion could be better spent elsewhere in the learning process. It may not be the best way but if you are regularly reading and writing Chinese characters on a computer, then you are probably interacting with new characters enough to get them in your head. This leaves the handwriting aspect of Chinese free to become an enjoyable hobby. I would say, though, that just looking at an isolated character on for example a flashcard without that further interaction is probably not enough.
Now if you are actually finding this language learning process easy but you do fancy adding a bit of modesty to the mix (though I would understand if you didn’t), this chéngyǔ is for you: 笨鸟先飞/ bèn niǎo xiān fēi. It translates as the stupid or slow bird flies first. Basically: “Yes, I might speak good Chinese, but it is not because I am clever, but because I am stupid. I had to start studying earlier than others.” If I ever get to the point where people are genuinely complementing me on my Chinese, then this one is for me. Sadly, though, it won’t be applicable on the basis of modesty.
Thanks again to Lǐ Wén Huá and good luck to all of you out there grappling with this language.