Unit 3 Page 29 Lesson D2C

Page 29:

2: listening and writing

Favorite proverbs

C: match each proverb above with a similar English proverb below

Write the number then listen again as someone responds to each proverb and check you answers

1:

We have one very popular proverb that goes, “The rattan basket criticizes the palm leaf basket; still both are full of holes.”

You use it when somebody is criticizing somebody else, or complaining about somebody, even though they might have the same faults or do the same thing.

So it’s a kind of warning against criticizing people too quickly, without looking at yourself.

it’s a good one, I think.

I like that one.

And I like the way it shows how culture is reflected in language -you know, a basket made of rattan and a basket made of palm leaves.

It sounds a lot like an expression we have in English, but o ours is about cooking.

We say something like, “It’s like the pot calling the kettle black.”

Because really, the pot and the kettle are both black from sitting in the fire.

It means the same thing- don’t call people names or criticize them because they could say the same thing about you.

2:

in my country we have a very strong work ethic.

We work very hard - we have to - and so we have proverbs that reflect that.

One goes something like this:

'’You are beautiful; but learn to work, for you cannot eat your beauty.”

And it is true.

I mean, you can be very beautiful, but that’s probably not going to earn you money and put food on your table.

So it’s important to be prepared to work and not rely on your beauty.

It basically says that beauty isn’t enough.

Yeah.

I guess the nearest one I know in English is “Beauty is only skin deep.”

It’s the same thing, really.

Beauty is superficial and probably won’t last as you get older, so you can’t rely on it.

Though l guess it also means that what’s on the inside is what really matters - like your character and your personality - and not just what’s on the outside, what you look like.

3:

We have thousands of proverbs - there’s a saying for practically every situation in life!

One good proverb we have is this:

“A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.”

I like that one.

I like the idea that when you do something wrong or have some kind of problem, you learn from it and grow wiser.

Basically, it means that you learn something every time you make a mistake.

It makes sense.

Yeah, and it’s kind of funny too.

I mean, who falls into a ditch?

It’s a bit like two expressions we have in English.

One is “You learn from your mistakes,” which is kind of a proverb, I guess.

But it’s not as funny or as colorful as yours.

And then there’s another one, ‘‘Once bitten, twice shy.”

But that one is mainly used when you’ve had some kind of bad experience, like when someone has cheated you or hurt you in some way.

It means you won’t let it happen again.

You’ll be careful the next time.

4:

I love proverbs.

They’re fun, and they make you think.

One from my country that I like translates roughly like this:

'’There is no bad from which good doesn’t come.’’

To me, it’s optimistic.

You know, sure, bad things happen in life, but every bad thing leads eventually to something good.

Life is full of ups and downs.

And sometimes when things go wrong, it’s hard to believe that anything good could ever come from it.

So that’s when this proverb helps.

It makes you look for the good in a situation.

That’s really nice, yeah.

In English we say, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” which is very similar.

Because it means that in every bad situation, there’s something good that will come out of it in the end, even if you can’t see it right away.

You know, I think these two proverbs mean exactly the same thing.