Hito no Furi mite Wa-ga Furi Naose (人の振り見て我が振り直せ)

Hito no Furi mite Wa-ga Furi Naose

The day before yesterday, I introduced the idiom 'hanmen kyōshi' (反面教師), which comes from China and means a negative exemplar.

There is a Japanese proverb that has a similar meaning to this -- it is 'hito no furi mite wa-ga furi naose' (人の振り見て我が振り直せ).

Since 'hito' (人) means "person," 'furi' (振り) means "behavior," ''mite' (見て) means "look," wa-ga' (我が) means "my," and 'naose' (直せ) means "fix," the literal meaning of this proverb is "Fix your behavior by looking other's behavior."

I think there is no need to explain the etymology.

It just says that you should learn what to do and what not to do from other's behavior.

人の振り見て我が振り直せ

二日前、中国の慣用句に由来する「反面教師」という言葉を紹介しました。

「反面教師」とよく似た日本のことわざに、「人の振り見て我が振り直せ」があります。

「人」は "person"、「振り」は "behavior"、「見て」は "look"、「我が」は "my"、「直せ」は "fix" を意味するので、このことわざの文字どおりの意味は "" となります。

特に説明は不要だと思います。

他人の行動を見て、良いところは見習い、悪いところは改めよということを言っているわけです。