Every month starting from this month I plan on creating a monthly series of Korean proverbs.  This Korean proverbs series will help you understand the Korean culture and language a little better each time you learn a new proverb.  Hopefully you’ll look forward to this series and learn from it as well.

Today’s proverb is “두 손에 떡” (du soneh ddok).  To clarify its meaning let’s break this proverb into digestable parts.  두 = two.  손 = hand.  떡 = rice cake.  Altogether it refers to a person who holds two rice cakes in each hand and is unable to eat the rice cakes properly because both hands are occupied.  In other words, your greed can prevent you from becoming efficient because instead of doing things one at a time or eating the rice cake one at a time, you want to do it all at once or eat both rice cakes at all once with both hands.  

This proverb accurately reflects the value Koreans place on doing things at their suggested time, in order, one after another.  The English phrase “haste makes waste” is very similar in meaning to this Korean proverb, except for the fact that it has more to do with overambicion leading to inefficiency.  In fact, many Korean proverbs have English equivalents, but not all are as clear in meaning as the one we just looked at today. 

Some proverbs have hidden meanings so as not to offend anyone, especially the aristocracy.  The use of Korean proverbs goes way back when criticizing a noble could warrant death or imprisonment.  Therefore, Korean proverbs are used to this day to criticize people indirectly.  However, many educated people know the complex meaning behind some popular proverbs, so your use of a proverb may not be so indirect.  At the very least though, when you use a proverb, you’ll look erudite and fluent in Korean.  I guess you could call it a higher form of trash talking, especially when you want to comment on a situation or a person!