Chinese language learners, what is your favourite Chengyu?
I remember learning this one in class: 虎头蛇尾 (hǔtóushéwěi) literally “tiger’s head, snake’s tail” to say that something got a strong start but weak finish.
Also, I really like 自强不息 (zìqiángbùxī) that means “constantly strive to become stronger/improve oneself”.
Nice topic, I’ve been trying to shoehorn these 3 into my conversations lately:
独一无二 means unrivalled or the very best
莫名其妙 means baffled-super confused
不可思议 means unthinkable
These may actually just be 4 character words rather than Chengyu but I wanted to share as I am hearing them more and more in my podcasts and they are really neat ways to level us up.
I’ve used all of them recently and on more occasions than not, the Chinese speaker says “Ooo nice vocab!”
Yep. That’s a good class, with a story to associate to the 成语. I had originally skipped all the “writing” classes, but now I’ve going back to do them. I don’t handwrite, but there is still a lot of good stuff in those classes.
My all time favourite is 白头到老 meaning to live together until the white hairs of old age show up… for me it’s so cute🥺 and it makes me think of my grand parents🥰
Another one I love is 雨过天晴, meaning “silver lining” because I like to think that every bad situation can change for the better!