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	---> MORE Thai Proverbs: _________________________________ Keeping your head down Standing the World on its Head Beware of Appearances Keeping Your Head Down When the Cat's Away You've Got to be Stupid Before You Get Wise Measuring Someone's Footprint Be compliant! Snake Snake Fish Fish Bid Tong Lang Phra - To do good by stealth The Menacing Tiger Little birds nest according to their size Keeping Your Head Down The Chameleon That Lost Its Head Out of Pride Wisdom come from Stupidity Follow the old, and the dogs won't bite you LOOKING AT THE TSUNAMI DISASTER Measuring Someone's Footprint One drop of honey Keeping Your Head Down Avoiding Victory Blame and Responsibility Beware of Appearances When the cat’s away, the mice play Water, water everywhere…

You've Got to be Stupid Before You Get Wise

A student of mine was on holiday in Isan - the Thai Northeast. She and her parents were out teeo-ing (sightseeing) one day and got hungry. They came on a guy selling corn-cobs who assured them he had the most delicious charcoal-roasted cobs imaginable: why didn’t they buy what he had left, because he was just on his way home. As well as being hungry, they felt sympathy for the vendor and bought the rest of his stock…only to find what they had on their hands were common or garden boiled corn cobs. “Never mind,” they told themselves, “ngo yorm ma gorn chalat,” - literally, ‘You have to be stupid before you become wise’. Now, how would we say that in English? All I could think of off the top of my head was, ‘Once bitten, twice shy,” but that’s just negative, missing the implication of the Thai saying that while mistakes are inevitable, they actually teach you something and bring about positive change. The only thing I’ve been able to come up with is a couple of sayings - aphorisms - of the 18th C. English poet and visionary William Blake. 'The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’, which isn’t really very close; and a slightly better one, ‘If a fool persists in his folly he will become wise.’ That’s not particularly close either, but if there’s an English equivalent, I haven’t yet come on it yet.

Any suggestions?