maybe when you were an elementary students, especially in Indonesia, you will frequently see, read, even write a proverb.
I remembered, when i was in my 2nd year as an elementary student, our teacher asked us to write our most favourite proverb that we had already known by reading a book or hearing someone said it, in a 40x30 cm white-coloured manila paper. we may furnish it with anything, including some artistic paper, some drawing from marker, even we can use things like dryed-flower, small beautiful stones, and leaves. I, myself, since i didnt have a good sense of artistic designing :p, i just wrote it, gave it a square-shaped lines around it, and added some yellow-cutted leaves to fill the space that was bordered by the square-shaped lines, yeah it looked so-so but yeah it was better than nothing wasn't it?
actually we did it since our teacher wanted to paste some of our work at the class; wall, so that we will always be able to see some supporting proverb when we were having a class, and surprisingly, my work was chosen as one of 10 sheets that will be pasted in the wall, the reason is that many of my friends wrote the same proverbs, the most popular proverb in my elementary era such as "rajin pangkal pandai", "hemat pangkal kaya" or "kebersihan adalah sebagian dari iman" since i was the only one who wrote that proverb, my work was automatically chosen, cause it was not funny to have 4 same proverbs pasted in the wall haha.
back to the proverb, i recalled that i wrote "Dimana ada kemauan disitu pasti ada jalan", or in english "where there is a will, there is a way", yeah my favourite proverb, even until now i still believe in that proverb, since it sometimes help me motivated myself when i started to desperate about something.
Talking about proverb, in every part of the world, the numbers are countless, even there are some specific proverbs that are only available in particular country, but the numbers of general or common proverbs are also numerous.
Sometimes, some proverbs are contradictive, while one of them state A, the other proverb sometimes state the anti-A, in other words, we must try to apply it according to our current situation and condition, and here there are, im presenting some global-accepted proverbs that are contradictive each other:
The Pen is mightier than a Sword vs Action speaks louder than Words
why would a pen is sharper than a sword? haha it's just a proverb, the proverb try to imply that a writing is more powerful than an action (or violance maybe), means that someone will obey the rules that literaly written than a rule that unwritten, it's somehow true, since thats why all the rules in a country are carefully written, so that all the society obey it, but wait, actions sometimes are better than words, aren't they? yep, in reality children will respect their parents more, when their parents, do things that they asked their children to do it also, what will you feel, when a teacher prohibit you to smoke in the class, and he said that while he was somoking at the same time? sure no student will respect and obey what the teacher said. so in short, sometimes you have to know when to use "pen" and when to "act".
Many Hands make light work vs Too many cooks spoil the broth
Many hands make light works, maybe most of the people will believe in this proverb instead of its contradictor. This proverb is really applicable; even some other proverbs such as “united we stand” strengthen the position of this proverb to be believed.
A simple example is, you can imagine, when your teacher asked you to clean the whole class alone, surely no one wants to do that, since it will become such an exhausting and time-consuming job to do, but what if all the students do it instead? The previous tiring job will become a much easier task to do, yeah that’s the power of teamwork, and it is only one of many examples that prove that this proverb is really-really applicable in reality, but is there a case when a job is handled by more people, will make it harder than if it was handled by fewer people? Yep, there is, a job like cooking (like the proverb said) or even some simple job like decision-making, will be more effectively and efficiently done by fewer people who really understand the problem/job, imagine again, in a kitchen, where 10 professional chefs are asked to make a vegetable soup together, there will be a chaos, since one chef prefer a salt taste to sweet one, another chef think that they should pour additional pepper, while the 3rd chef think, that too much pepper may make the soup over-cooked, and wait the 7th chef said that carrot is a good choice to be added into the pot, whereas, the last chef, insist that carrot is hard to consume and adding more tomatoes would be better, haha so much conflict of interest that surely will make the cooking process become longer and more patient-demanding, contrary, when only one chef making that soup, I’m quite sure that the process will become much shorter, and therefore, makes the soup more delicious.
So what’s the point? Maybe in reality, the more people doing a particular job, the easier will the job be, but in some cases, some specific jobs, will be more effectively done by fewer people, in case a job that needs personal taste, or preferences, that’s why we should know, the proper time to ask for help, and the right time to do it just alone.
You're never too old to learn vs You can't teach an old dog new tricks
another contradictive proverbs, the first one, try to persuade you that there is no maximum age to learn something, since learning is different from studying, we can still get experience from everything that we see, anything that we hear, even from everything that we did. in the other hand, the 2nd proverb try to say the opposite thing, that some knowledge or skills are extremely difficult to teach to old-aged person, things like computers, design, sports are near impossible to learn by our grandparenst for example, so i think these two proverbs are not that contradictive, since they are different in the perception of "learning" definition, anyway, these two proverbs provide some useful information to us that, when we young, just keep try to maximiaze our pyential by learning and acquiring some new knowledges and skills, since in the future, most of the skills and knowledes that available to learn, will hardly be acquired.
Ask No Question and Hear No Lies vs Ask,and You Shall ReceiveAsk No Question, Hear No Lies
This proverb makes us think that every question will be answered by a lie, what a skeptic proverb it is. Not every answer that we seek is a lie, but why does this proverb said like that? There must be a reason to it.
Back to my past experience, where I was still a 2nd grade senior high school students, a time when friends felt more valuable than a family, I remembered when each of us asked a serious question, the others won’t answered it seriously too, yeah I know that they were just joking, but it sometimes could make me annoyed and hurt my feeling. We should change our mindset, that not everyone in this world is honest, trustworthy, or do what everyone should do. Some people are a type of rule-breaker, some of them are very individualist, even some people, were born just to do an evil-thingy-actions (yeah I believe it!!), that’s why sometimes this world can be a frustrated world to live in, since so many unfaithful and untrustworthy person exists, so we must be always careful everyday. But, hey the other proverb seems more positive than the previous one, ask, and you shall receive, very applicable proverb, cause by asking a question, we will get an answer, regardless of the answer was the truth or the lies, we still get an answer, yeah, an answer, that’s why we ask. Try to see the good from the bad, even if you get the “wrong” answer, at least you can learn something from that wrong answer, now, you will be able to know, who is trustworthy, and who is not, who is saying the truth, and who is lying, and the most important lesson that without a “bad”, there would be no “good”.
This time I prefer the 2nd proverb to the 1st, since it gives more positive thinking lesson to us, although the first one is not absolutely wrong, sometimes people lying, me, myself are often lying just to pleasure someone’s heart, even I know that my beloved parents are still sometimes lying until now haha, don’t be naïve, honesty is not always the best choice, sometimes lying is the best thing to do =).
Variety is The Spice of Life vs Don't Change Horses in Midstream
Spice up your life! Maybe the more popular proverb than these two that is being compared, everyone has his/her own preferences and hobbies, by doing something that we like or something that is challenging, our life will become a more exciting life to live in, can you imagine how bored will our life be, if we just doing all the same thing every day, without any single variation?
Yes, like my current job at the ministry of finance, we almost doing all the same job every day, typing, posting letters, evaluating local government’s rules, rinse and repeat all the same job again, and I feel like I need a little variation or at least any other job to do, that’s why while working, I try to find a time to write this article, and sometimes I also surfing the net to kill the bored.
Variety is the spice of life, such a true proverb, just like what I said before. Let’s take the analogy of life and foods, what will you feel if you eat a food that contains the same ingredients? You eat vegetable soup, but the soup only contains carrot? Surely, the soup will be more delicious, if we add some tomatoes, cabbage, asparagus, and other veggies inside it, life is just the same, sleeping all day long, working all day long, even playing all day long, will absolutely boring, that’s why we are playing while working, talking while eating, joking while meeting, and even we singing while bathing, since all that variations make our life more interesting.
But, in some cases, it is better not to change anything that already been set up, even that things are all without variation, things like official rules or working procedures, are subject of unaltered things, example, our working procedures stated that the original documents, must be send to the province’s governor, while the copies are sent to other destination. Yeah, you are wondering why the original must be sent to the governor, and you give variation by sending the copy instead, since you get bored of doing the same thing again and again, but what will happen? You will get scolded by your boss for doing that wrong. Haha perhaps, the last example wasn’t good enough but at least we get a lesson that new things are always welcome, since sometimes we easily get bored of our routine activities, but remember, not all activity, work, or task can be variated, sometimes we need to let it be like it used and should be =D
Don't Cross the Bridge till You Come to It vs Forewarned is Forearmed. why would you cross the bridge when you couldn't see it? yeah such a waste thing to do, this proverb try to say that we'd better not too planned/did all the things that we will do until that things is really clear to see. a good example is when i just graduated from STAN, and asked to file all the pre-requisite documents to apply for job in ministry of finance, before the scheduled time come, i already made an initiative to legalize my birth certificate, since my current home is in Bali, whereas I was born in Padang, legalize the certificate become an amusingly confusing task to do, since i was not sure where to legalize it, therefore it need all day long just to do it. but what happen when the schedule was announced? I'm a bit disappointed since in fact the certificate wasn't one of the required document. yeah, so my legalized certificate come to be a waste, a waste of money, a waste of energy, and a waste of time.
Sometimes, taking a square-off is really important, not only you will get an overview of what will you face, but also you will be physically and mentally ready for it. practicing something, although the events are canceled, will never gone waste, since you already increase your ability to do that matters. yeah, you will get the advantages when the events are held, in the other hand, you wont aggrieved when the events are canceled, so forewarned is forearmed, it is never waste of an action to prepare everything in advanced.. so be ready, but watch out don't be too over-prepared.
Silence is Golden vs The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
my favorite contradiction,not only cause these proverbs are popular but also the variability of opinion that will arise when anyone are asked about this question.
Silence is Golden was a really popular proverb since a long time, this proverb teach us not to over-talking, over-bragging, about what we are able to do, since it will make us looked arrogant and cocky, people hate arrogant person, hate someone who bragged to much, cause sometimes these people can't prove something that they are bragged about, really pathetic, nevertheless, keep silence also wasn't a good choice, if you sure you are good at some aspect try to tell it or show it without bragging, or else, no one will realized what you are capable of, and therefore, you will easily underestimated by everyone, yeah like the proverb said, which wheel will get the grease?? yeah, the squeaky one, it just like who will get attention? yep, the noisy one! :D,
so, the conclusion is,show what you are capable to do, but watch out showing is not equal as bragging, once people see you are bragging without prove, you will start to lose some respect from them.
it just a few examples of many that are available, we still have "Look Before you Leap" vs "He Who Hesitates is Lost" or "The Early Bird gets the Worm" vs "The Second Mouse gets the Cheese".
Just one thing that we should remember that proverb is just words of wisdom that you mustn't do, but still proverb is expressed a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity, means there will be no proverb, if the actual or real-experience doesn't exist.
So, proverb can be a good guidance for our life, but we must be careful, since some proverbs are contradictive to each other, so that we should find the right time to use it as a guidance...
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