上得山多终遇虎

(pinyin: shàng de děi shān duō zhōng yù hǔ).

This means “If you go to the mountain often enough, you will meet the tiger.” But what does that mean? Is it good? Bad? Neither?

A Chinese proverb can go both ways

One way of interpreting this saying is believing meeting the tiger is a bad thing.

The tiger is after all in China considered to be the king of the forest; a very mighty beast indeed!

But this guy‘s interpretation is more interesting – and way more positive for the tiger: “If you [don’t] practice [regularly], you probably won’t get the breakthrough you’re looking for. You’ll have to practice a lot more to get to meet that tiger. So if you really want that breakthrough, keep on going up that mountain. It’ll appear one day.”

We have to agree: practice is essential in learning any language, Chinese especially.

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The post Chinese proverb: Go the mountain and meet the tiger. appeared first on Ninchanese.