A Proverb a Day

A la cama no te irás sin saber una cosa más*

I translated the following from my Diccionario Júnior:

Refrán (Proverb or saying) Popular phrase repeated traditionally in the same manner that reflects things man has learned and seem like great truths.

The Spanish language is up to its eyelids in proverbs. I remember that what I loved the most about my very first Spanish grammar book were the proverbs that came at the beginning of each chapter. I’m sure that the other languages that I have studied over the years have their fair share of proverbs; I just can’t recite a single saying in French, or Greek, or Arabic. I can go toe-to-toe with just about the best of them when it comes to Spanish proverbs.

At the Sunday flea market I picked up a copy of Los Mejores Refranes Españoles with 11,225 proverbs. This is by far the best 2€ I have spent since I got here. I’m sure my time would be better spent cramming vocabulary or grammar into my head but I just like learning Spanish sayings—I can blame it on that first text book I used. I suppose that these pithy little sentences make the sometimes-tedious process of learning a new language a little more fun. At least it was until I read about 200 of them. It’s like when you were in high school and your parents found heroine in your room so they make you shoot up all of the heroine and after that you can’t hardly look at heroine anymore. That’s how I feel now about Spanish proverbs.

So just like with a big bag of heroine, you need to pace yourself when you buy a book with 11,225 Spanish sayings. I think that I will try to memorize one each day so that in one year I will be a complete geek.

*Never go to bed without having learned something new. This has always been one of my favorite sayings…in any language. I make an attempt to fulfill this promise to myself although some days are better than others.