Idioms in Language 成語: 英文與中文

This is a photo of my daughter's homework. She will memorize 揹書 several poems from the Tang 唐and earlier in the Three Kingdoms 三國 period. She really seems to like the stories involved in the learning of the culture, though we have explained to her that the 4 Famous Beautiful Women 四大美女from that time period are quite a bit different from today's ideal of beauty.

The use of idioms, sayings and literary allusions are quite a bit different in the Chinese language than in English. Idioms are used in English, but not that much. It would be a little strange for someone to keep bringing up idioms in conversation. Needless to say, literary allusions are rare in spoken English except for references to popular commercials.

In Chinese, idioms 成語(4 character sayings) are quite common. They neatly summarize a feeling or a script for some situation. There is even an idiom game 遊戲 that is similar to that geographical place name game in English. Two teams form and a team must come up with an idiom that starts with the same sounding character as the ending one thought up by the opposing team. It's a popular icebreaker in our church house group meetings.