Friday December 9, 2005
Proverbs told through jokes
LEARNING ENGLISH PROVERBS
It’s Hilariously Easy!
By Oh Teik Theam
(Times Editions, 184 pages)
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This is just a proverb to explain that the person has attempted to eat more food than his stomach can handle. Proverbs are popular and memorable sayings of advice or warnings that have become part of the cultural vocabulary.
The primary sources of proverbs are the collective wisdom of the people, handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, and the words of wise men. You may have heard of a few common proverbs, like “birds of a feather flock together” or “too many cooks spoil the broth”.
If you fancy peppering your conversations or speeches with more wise-sounding proverbs, Learning English Proverbs – It’s Hilariously Easy! is the book for you.
It is a collection of over 300 English proverbs. Their meanings are presented through jokes, many of which are accompanied by illustrations. You can look up individual proverbs from an alphabetically listed index, or go by the general categories in which they have been grouped, such as “friendship”, “love” or “misfortune”.
This book provides Malay translations of the proverbs, although these are literal translations and not the Malay equivalent of the proverbs. The idea is to let the reader know what the words literally mean in Malay.
Written in an informal style, Learning English Proverbs is a useful and enjoyable work of reference or simply a source of amusement for the reader. – Tee Shiao Eek
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