Learn Chinese idiom - 班门弄斧. The meaning of this term is to teach one's granny how to suck eggs. When you learn Chinese, if you plan to show your language skills to the local speakers before you learn it well, you should not be too proud since you may be considered as 班门弄斧.

 

From the characters contained in this term, you can figure out its meaning. 班 means 鲁班, he was the greatest carpenter in China and he was good at using axe. 班门弄斧 is used to describe someone who teach 鲁班 how to use axe. In Ming Dynasty, a poet named as Mei Zhi Huan went to visit Cai Shi Ji, Cai Shi Ji was the place where Li Bai, the famous poet lost his life. Li Bai's tomb was built in Cai Shi Ji. Mei Zhi Huan found that there were many articles on the stones around Li Bai's tomb and most of the articles were very bad. Mei Zhi Huan thought those articles insult Li Bai and so he wrote a poem to satire those people who dare to write articles near Li Bai's tomb.

 

Here is the poem :

采石江边一堆土，

李白之名高千古。

来来往往一首诗，

鲁班门前弄大斧。

 

cǎi shí jiāng biān yī duī tǔ ，

lǐ bái zhī míng gāo qiān gǔ 。

lái lái wǎng wǎng yī shǒu shī ，

lǔ bān mén qián nòng dà fǔ 。

Li Bai's tomb was built near Cai Shi Ji,

We all know that Li Bai was good at writing poems.

Shameless mortal men,

How dare you write articles near his tomb?

 

In order to avoid 班门弄斧, you should be unassertive and patient when you learn Chinese. You can learn the language skills at any time and when you are good enough at speaking Chinese, you will not 班门弄斧.