船老大带学员,从河说起船老大帶學員,從河說起船老大帶學員,從河説起

a boatman teaching a trainee: starting with the river (河)

Saying俗语俗語

Two-part saying歇后语歇後語 · Rarely used now

Meaning: Said when you do not know where to begin on a matter. The boatman starts with the river, and there is no obvious starting point.
Wordplay: 河 (hé, river) sounds the same as 何 (hé, what/how), so 'start from the river' also sounds like 'start from what?'.

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Simplified: 船老大带学员,从河说起
Traditional (Taiwan): 船老大帶學員,從河說起
Traditional (Hong Kong): 船老大帶學員,從河説起
Pinyin: chuánlǎodà dài xuéyuán,cóng hé shuōqǐ
Bopomofo: ㄔㄨㄢˊ ㄌㄠˇ ㄉㄚˋ ㄉㄞˋ ㄒㄩㄝˊ ㄩㄢˊ,ㄘㄨㄥˊ ㄏㄜˊ ㄕㄨㄛㄑㄧˇ

Written with HSK 6 vocabulary, at CEFR level B2.

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