What are your favorite 成语s?

Ok, here is one:

掩耳盗铃

yao3 er3 dao4 ling2

"plugging one's ears while stealing a bell"

Hey, I posted daily for ages, cheeky swine! :-) But everyone ignored me and work got crazy CRAZY busy, so I haven't had the chance, more's the pity...

Feel free to join in :-p

yea there was one once:

http://chinesepod.com/community/groups/view/chinese-idioms-140

a guy named xiao liang was going to revive it, maybe, someday, well he meant to.

And I love it as well. It is far more interesting than "sink or swim". I'm glad this was mentioned. I DID forget it.

Yes! I've always loved this 成语.

Or "full of ups and downs". I always thought it was interesting that 'bitter' and 苦 usually have different meanings when used to describe people.

Please please please!!!!

Or even a new series of lessons all together, a new show about 成语. It would be so popular. A short show, one 成语 each time with explanation of each character and in what other word they are found & then explanation of the 成语 itself and sentences with it to help grasp the context when it is used. One a week... I can't see this being hard to produce and poddies would appreciate it so much!!! Don't put too many at a time together or we won't retain them all. And no need to cancel QW for it... I think it could be its own show!!! Now that there is no more Amber or other shows outside lessons & QW, I think this would be a great way to vary a bit our studies.

Yes, I requested this topic for a Qingwen (and of course possibly others)! I am crossing my fingers that it is in the works. It seems like an obvious choice to me. There are literally thousands to choose from, but it would be really cool if there was a QW that suggested a dozen or so that are both common and are applicable in many situations. The funny thing is that I have printed out lists of 成语s and showed them to Chinese people. I ask which ones are most useful/common. They always say all/most of them! I'm sorry, but there is useful, and then there is USEFUL. Anyway, preaching to the choir now.

Haha, that is indeed a cute one. I wonder if that one will make some Chinese blush?

I also know there is 没有付出没有收获, but I guess that yours is traditional, while mine is a translation.

You can say 他的表達不三不四。But it is not common.

A search in glossary with 不三不四 will refer you to the expansion sentences of this advanced lesson:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/%E5%A6%88%E5%A6%88%E5%9C%A8%E5%93%AA%E9%87%8C%EF%BC%9F/expansion

I don't really know if your sentence is good or not... but I see that it is used to describe a store or a website that looks not quite right... for which there is a weird feeling...

Can you use it in a sentence?

Can I say, 他的表達不三不四。

Something shady, not clear, neither one thing nor the other

不三不四，although I still don't truly understand what it means.

滴水穿石 Thats a great one!!! Thanks!

u like the 成语,o ,there will be a long way to work hard. but ,it will be fun...加油哦。滴水穿石。

Funny you should mention it (but not actually funny), my wife just heard of a guy whose parents want him to get a divorce because his wife failed to produce a son. The good news is that this situation is object of a lot of criticism in our little area of town.

Perhaps that somehow explains China in general. I often think that they are very flexible, yet there are definite boundaries drawn.

Nice to see you back calkins. Yes, the scooters are one of the main things I remember from my trip to Taipei. I saw an accident after just being there a couple of hours.

I would say that I hope you never comment on one of my posts ever again. One of my best friends is married to a Japanese woman. Please be offensive somewhere else.

Haha, I never thought there would be a discussion on Epicurus here.

Nice. Thankyou.

Not sure that it is Epicurus, although it's often attributed to him. Epicurus's line would be more "Eat just a little (although a pot of cheese would be nice); drink just a small glass of wine; oh, and it makes no sense to fear death."

The source for the quote may in fact be Iasiah 22:13, with "And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die."

Anyway, I'm off to slay an ox.

yea but the second half of it is a bit of a downer .... "for tomorrow we die"

-Epicurus.

I was just thinking of that first one, but in English. I'm not sure it qualifies for a 成语. It doesn't matter, though. Proverbs and 成语s are more or less 差不多 in my eyes. Eat, drink and be merry is a good one as well.

hehe, actually I have not. I will give it a try. The only one I ever used successfully was one about the early bird and I cant even remember it now.

That is a good one. Have you ever tried that out with any of the Chinese employees you work with?

Actually it's perfect here... I am not so much into maintaining groups either.... hi hi hi ...

I have officially started my list of 成语 and adding on... I LOVE it...

I hope we get some real 成语 lessons SOON!!!

BTW I love all your posts... thanks they are very practical and useful... keep it up... although I don't have a lot of free time to write a lost of post, I enjoy reading what others post & answers. Thanks!

Hey, my pleasure. I'm glad that it is slowly amassing some good ones. I plan on taking most of these, writing them down and then memorizing them. I would start a group, but I kind of doubt that I would maintain it. You always could though, nudge, nudge (hehe).

This is a great DISCUSSION... you should create a group out of it... thanks for your great posts!

挥金如土, hehe, yeah--most Chinese are more frugal than we are. My wife sometimes claims I waste money. What is ironic is that some people have called me a cheapskate back in the states.