Hello Readers!

车到山前必有路, 船到桥头自然直 (che1 dao4 shan1qian2 bi4you3lu4, chuan2dao4qiao2tou2zi4ran2zhi2) (There must be a road for the car to go to the mountain, a boat will straighten out under a bridge)- This is a phrase kind of like “things work out in the end.”  This is a phrase that I learned while studying Chinese in college, and I’ve always fallen back on this phrase when asked about how I expect something to turn out.

与君一夕谈, 胜读十年书 – (yu2jun1yi1xi1tan2, sheng4du2shi2nian2shu1) (Speaking with you [formal] conquers 10 years of study) It took me a little while to find an appropriate translation.  I’d sum it up best as “having spoken with you, I’ve learned more than I would have from 10 years of study.”  I learned this phrase while conversing with a teacher who is the aunt of a friend of mine- we had been talking about several topics for an extended period of time and this phrase came up.  I was delighted, for this was a phrase I had been looking for for quite some time.

读万卷书不如行万里路 (du2wan4juan4shu1bu4ru2xing2wan4li3lu4)  (Reading 10,000 books does not compare to traveling 10,000 li.)  A li is about 500m (as of the Han dynasty, according to wikipedia).  This is a good phrase to consider if you’re on the fence about if you should travel or not with all other things being considered.  You could learn more outside the house than on a day on, say, wikipedia!  Coming up I’ll discuss my favorite (and most useful) 成语  in Chinese.