Ever since my 4th grade language arts teacher
suggested I read a book called “Idiot’s Guide to American Idioms,” I’ve been
hooked on idioms, of all languages.
I’m not sure why idioms are called idioms and I’m not even
sure what differentiates an idiom from an axiom with a proverb, but they’re
nice short set of words that convey a meaning other than what the literal sense
is. Chinese languages are really some of the best ones out there. They’re
usually 4 words long, but they usually pack a great deal in those 4 words, and
they’re rich with cultural importance: they reveal a lot about Chinese culture
and values.
Most bizarre idiom: Throwing someone under the bus. For
assigning blame to someone else, the bizarre image of one actually pushing
someone under the tires of a bus is laughable. Really makes you wonder how
people came up with this stuff.
Favorite Japanese idiom: Saru mo ki kara ochiru, aka even
monkeys fall from trees. We all make mistakes; I’ve made so many of them
already in my life.
Idioms to describe my fantasy football season: Pack it in.
Put a fork in’em. The joke was on me. And a shared Chinese and Japanese one
(the 2 languages share the same idiom): Chu song on 4 sides. Meaning you’re
surrounded by the enemy and you’ve given up all hope. I am very slowly souring
on fantasy football, as is Bill Simmons, according to his BS Report podcast, although
for different reasons. I’ve come to realize that football is just not very
conducive for playing fantasy sports. I’m not talking about popularity or
appetite for it, those exist aplenty and more than any other fantasy sport, but
they scoring system and style of play of
fantasy football is just not that conducive to fantasy. One outlying play can
determine so many fantasy games; games are only played once a week; only about
30% of the players even matter for fantasy. It pales in comparison to
basketball or baseball, where there are many more individual plays, things even
out due to larger sample size, and stat categories are more than just “you get
certain amount of points for a type of play.”
Most useful dating idiom: 花より団子Hana
yori dango: (Prefer dumplings over flowers). Means to prefer substance over
style or appearance. Definitely a good philosophy to adhere to in dating. I
went on a first date recently and really got a great conversation going; it’s
amazing how much you can gather from 2 hours of a first date just talking as
well as observing: whether they’re early or late, what they’re wearing, how
fast they respond to your questions, what kind of follow-up questions they
have, if they look at you or not, if they laugh at your jokes, if they (in my
case, can figure out your magic tricks), as well as what they’re saying. But
the most important thing is the substance of the conversation: what one says
reveals a whole lot about oneself. Sure, one sentence usually won’t make or
break one’s personality (unless it’s “I’m an axe murderer” or something, and of
course people can make mistakes in what they want to convey during a
conversation 猿 も 木 から 落ちる(saru mo ki o ochiru) but over the course of 2 hours of
conversation a lot of who one is comes out in conversation. That’s kind of
where I excel, I think, although who knows, I haven’t been on the other side of
a Robert Yan grill session, so it’s possible I’m horrible at it. Also, I
received the following compliment from the date: I am not arrogant. If there’s
one thing I get from this whole dating experience, it’s that I do not come off
as overconfident or cocky on a first date. Good to know.
Reminder to self: if you need to, use the restroom to regroup yourself. You don’t need to just sit there and desperately try to find a new topic to talk about. Also, don’t ask, “do you have any questions for me?” Almost ruined the whole night, which went pretty well, when I asked this as the date wondered if I was imitating a telephone service operator asking if there was anything else the client needed help with. Ah, I really hope this whole dating thing wont’ be “半途而废”(Chinese for stop in midstream)
Anyway, I encourage everyone to study idioms when learning a language, it really helps get a feel for that language’s accompanying culture, as well as help one understand those idioms when they randomly “make a cameo appearance” so that they don’t “throw a wrench in the works” of your language study.
Fantasize on, (Ganbatte!)
Robert Yan
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