Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Chinese term or phrase:
班门弄斧
English translation:
Teach fish how to swim
Chinese term
班门弄斧
The ChinaDaily site translates it as "teach one's grandma to suck eggs". My goodness!
4 +8 | A few suggestions | Stefanie Sendelbach |
3 +1 | FYI teach your grandmother to suck eggs | chica nueva |
Proposed translations
A few suggestions
- show off one's skill before an expert
- parade one's learning before a great scholear
- teach fish (how) to swim
These are all taken from A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary (Foreign Language Teaching and Reseach Press)
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Note added at 1 hr 46 mins (2005-01-07 19:23:47 GMT)
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Kingsoft Powerword gives: \"To display one\'s slight skill before an expert\"
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Of course it should read \"scholar\" instead of \"scholear\", sorry.
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Will Wong
29 mins
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Thanks. I personally like the one with the fish best.
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AlanG (X)
: This phrase can also be found in "The Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary", Wu Jingrong ed.
58 mins
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Thanks, Alan.
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Will Matter
: Like teaching Wing Chuns' Bil Jee form to Ip Man or teaching Li Ching-Yun how to breathe or helping Cheng Man Ching to "improve" his push hands technique. You get the idea.
1 hr
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Denyce Seow
: I like your last one. However I must say that "teach one's grandma to suck eggs" is a valid saying.
1 hr
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Francis Fine
: A comparable and established English saying? "To haul coal to New Castle" is all I can think of at the moment.
1 hr
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Edward LIU
6 hrs
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Shang
7 hrs
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Thank you, everybody.
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English Chinese Medical Translator - Jimmy Deng
1 day 3 hrs
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FYI teach your grandmother to suck eggs
teach your grandmother to suck eggs (UK disapproving) = to give advice to someone about a subject that they already know more about than you
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Note added at 1 day 16 hrs 2 mins (2005-01-09 09:40:01 GMT)
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班门弄斧 = display one\'s slight skill before an expert eg 在你面前班门弄斧,太不好意思了. I\'m making a fool of myself trying to show off before an expert like you.
=> \'show off in front of an expert\'(外研社\"汉英词典)
show off =
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Note added at 1 day 16 hrs 3 mins (2005-01-09 09:40:45 GMT)
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make a fool of oneself trying to show off in front of an expert
Discussion