亡羊补牢 (Lost Sheep Repair Sheepfold)
or
It's never too late to do the right thing.
Chinese lessons have started up again . It is good to see my former student on a regular basis again. She is finishing up her internship for her senior year. All Senior students work all over the city for their senior year internship. Some work in offices in the school, while others work at hotels, banks, and department stores. She worked under a local manager of one of the larger department stores in town. She doesn't love it. She said her former boss was a lot better then the present one. Her day usually consists of getting whatever the boss asks. She doesn't feel she is learning very much. But the internship will be over soon and the seniors will start classes soon.
When learning language you never know� where to go next. Both teacher and student isn't sure what the other is expecting. It proves to be more challenging when both students have very different levels of Chinese understanding. Last semester we started with the basics. Megan learned the spoken while I practiced my characters. Learning Chinese is kind of like learning two languages, a spoken one with sounds and tones. And a written one, where you have to memorize the characters which have little if anything to do with the actual sound the word makes.
This year our tutor decided to introduce Chinese idioms. While we have idioms in English often we have no idea where they come from. Hermione (no, not her real name) gave us the background information of where each idiom comes from. And usually they come from a specific period in Chinese history. Which is quite long I might add. While as an American I often don't know where phrases such as, "Cat's got your tongues?" or "caught red handed." Many of my students and people in China in general know the origin of their idioms. So here is a little wisdom from the Ancient Far East for ya!
These idioms will mostly come from Ancient China. Today's idiom will come from the Warring Period in Chinese history right before the first Dynasty. During the Warring Period, which is the second part of the Eastern Zho Dynasty, there were seven different kingdoms fighting for power.
*Spoiler alert!*
The Qin Dynasty was actually one of the kingdoms from the Warring Period, they just happened to beat all the other kingdoms to become the first unified country we know today as China.
This idiom comes from that period before the Qin took over the other 6 kingdoms. One of the most powerful was the Chu Kingdom. The king of the Chu spurned the advice of one of his top advisors and ended up losing some very important battles. When the king realized he was wrong he asked the advisor to help and the advisor famously said, 亡羊补牢 Even though many of the sheep are out, you can still mend the fence. Or, in similar idiom. It is never too late to do the right thing.
Now while eventually the Chu Kingdom did fall the saying remains. So let this week's ancient Chinese wisdom encourage you! It's not too late to get started on whatever it is that you were supposed to do!
Repair that sheep fence!
