Let’s talk about this famous pearls of wisdom–学而时习之，不亦说乎 which was said by one of China’s famous sage–Confucicus who was born 2000 years ago.

I think most Chinese know this wisdom. But I believe few people undersand what it really means, let alone for foreigners.

When Chinese people study this wisdom in junior high school, teachers explain it to them ‘学而时习之，不亦说乎’ means that “when people learn something, we should feel happy to learn it again and again” It emphasize the theory that when we learn something, we need repeat to learn. And we need to feel happy. This is the right way to learn.

And if you check this wisdom sentence in baidu, you will get the same answer.

But, here is what i really want to say if you want to learn real Chinese culture, especially Confucianism which influences deeply of almost all of Chinese people’s thinking. 学而时习之，不亦说乎, from my perspective, I think it means we people need to learn how to be a person, how to get along with other people, to learn to pay attention to your behavior, your art of communication. And we need to learn those again and again. To learn how to be a person makes you happy. So here I emphasize to learn how to be a person, how to get along with others. In Chinese language, it means 为人处世。

Different from Western culture, in Chinese we are more a human-being relationship society. So here, 学而时习之，Confucius is trying to say the principle of being a society person, not say how to learn.

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