{"id":10581,"date":"2019-11-22T12:25:21","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T12:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/?p=10581"},"modified":"2019-11-22T15:58:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T15:58:55","slug":"when-vegetable-meets-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/vi\/when-vegetable-meets-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"When Vegetable Meets Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"
               z\u011bn me q\u01d0 lái dé zhè me z\u01ceo
Xiao Lin: \u600e\u4e48\u8d77\u6765\u5f97\u8fd9\u4e48\u65e9\uff1f
<\/strong>               Why do you get up so early? <\/p>\n

             w\u01d2 dé liàn g\u014dng f\u016b ne
Simon: \u6211\u5f97\u7ec3\u529f\u592b\u5462\u3002<\/strong>
           I have to practice Kungfu.<\/p>\n

                bié tài zhe jí, màn màn lái ba
Xiao Lin: \u522b\u592a\u7740\u6025\uff0c\u6162\u6162\u6765\u5427<\/strong>\u3002
               Don’t worry. Take it easy.<\/p>\n

             shuí ràng w\u01d2 shì cài ni\u01ceo ne, w\u01d2 dé bèn ni\u01ceo xi\u0101n f\u0113i \u0101
Simon: \u8c01\u8ba9\u6211\u662f\u83dc\u9e1f\u5462\uff1f\u6211\u5f97\u7b28\u9e1f\u5148\u98de\u554a<\/strong>\u3002
             But am I not merely a beginner?  So I have to start early.<\/p>\n

In the last sentence, there are two "\u9e1f"(<\/strong> ni\u01ceo )(birds). "\u83dc<\/strong>"(cài) means dish or vegetable, but "\u83dc\u9e1f<\/strong>"( cài ni\u01ceo ) means, "rookie", "newbie", "beginner" or "sb new to a particular subject". For example, if someone has been learning Chinese for o<\/em>nly a few days, he\/she can be called \u4e2d\u6587\u83dc\u9e1f(Chinese beginner)<\/p>\n

There is a saying that”\u83dc\u9e1f<\/strong>” comes from "\u7b28\u9e1f<\/strong>”(bèn ni\u01ceo), which means a foolish bird or a stupid bird, while someone mistook "\u7b28" as "\u83dc". Then the word "\u83dc\u9e1f" has spread ever since.<\/p>\n

The second “\u9e1f<\/strong>” is included in Chinese idiom "\u7b28\u9e1f\u5148\u98de<\/strong>", which means "Clumsy bird flies early". Since Simon co<\/em>nsiders himself a beginner, he uses the proverb to explain why he got up so early.
 
There are other phrases that use "bird", such as:
\u65e9\u8d77\u7684\u9e1f\u513f<\/strong>\u6709\u866b\u5403 (The early bird catches the worm.)
\u6797\u5b50\u5927\u4e86\u4ec0\u4e48\u9e1f\u513f<\/strong>\u90fd\u6709 (Every forest has a bad bird. \/Its English equivalent is “Every herd has its own black sheep.”)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n