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谚语 Popular Chinese sayings with English translation!


Alex_01

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My favorites:

画蛇添足 Drawing feet on a snake: to ruin a successful effort by going to far. Not knowing when to stop.

班门弄斧 To show off your skill with an axe in front of a famous axe-weilder's front door: to show off in front of experts (very useful when a native Mandarin speaker compliments you on your Chinese)

拔苗助长 To try to make the plants grow faster by pulling on them: to ruin something by acting when you should just leave it alone. Doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Overeagerness.

乱七八糟 Chaotic, messed up, disorganized

对牛弹琴 Playing a violin to a cow: wasting your time by doing something good for someone who can't appreciate it. I often use it self-deprecatingly for some part of Chinese culture or entertainment I don't enjoy much, to clarify the problem is MY taste, not the entertainment. Roughly equivalent to Pearls before swine.

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