Steve
a "Frog in a well." Writing in English because this is how I heard the expression. A few months ago, in North Korea's endless propaganda, a North Korean official, according to the Korea Herald and a few other English language new publications, referred to President Park as "A frog in a well." I had several of my American friends ask me what that meant, and I have no idea. My wife also was unable to ask this. I thought it was probably just one of their nonsensical made-up expressions, but recently, I heard this expression again. So now, hearing it a second time, I'm wondering if there is more of a meaning to this. Are you familiar with this expression? What does it actually mean? And since I've only read it as translations in English Language publications, what is the Korea expression that is translated as this? Thank you
Sep 3, 2015 9:54 PM
Answers · 3
1
frog in the well=우물 안의 개구리 =井底之蛙( jǐng dǐ zhī wā) depicting a man of ignorance, originated from《庄子·秋水》(chuang-tzu) and,this is a common idiom in China~
September 4, 2015
1
"Frog in a well", or "우물 안 개구리" is a very common expression in Korean. It means someone who's born yesterday, not well informed, disconnected from the world, and so on. The traditional community drinking well in Korea, which has largely disappeared now, used to be rather deep so that people had to draw water using a bucket attached to the end of a very long rope. It sometimes took quite a while to get it down and back up. So if you live at the bottom of the well, you hardly get any light down there, let alone see anything outside. Hence the expression. It is one of the most common expressions in Korean, and it seems to be always said in that one form "우물 안 개구리". I've never heard any variation or anything other than that exact phrase. It might have originated from Zhǎng Zǐ's allegory, but that allegory doesn't seem well known in Korea. Or I should say I've never heard it told.
September 3, 2015
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