凡事学大丈

‘凡事学大丈’,The literal meaning is: Learn from your uncle in everything.Often refers to those who do things without knowing what to do and blindly follow others.

‘大丈’originally refers to the uncle in Teochew(husband of mother’s oldest sister or husband of oldest father’s sister).’凡事’means everything.

Practice speaking this sentence in Teochew dialect:

Special Teochew customs of address

In Teochew customs, after adults get married, they have to pay special attention to the way they address their spouse’s relatives.

For example, if your son calls someone uncle, you also need to call that person uncle in the same way to show respect. So a brother-in-law calls his brother-in-law ‘丈'(uncle).

The saying ‘凡事学大丈’ comes from a “silly son-in-law story” circulated among the people.

A smooth start

It is said that there was a foolish son-in-law who was going to his mother-in-law’s house to pay respects on her birthday. His wife was afraid that he would make a fool of himself, so she told him: “My elder brother-in-law is a well-educated man. When you go to my mother’s house, just learn from him.”

The next day, when he arrived at his mother-in-law’s house, the foolish son-in-law paid close attention to the eldest son-in-law’s every move and imitated him seriously.

At the banquet, the eldest son-in-law raised his glass, and he also raised his glass. The eldest son-in-law picked up dishes for his mother-in-law, and he also picked up dishes. He was well-behaved and very graceful.

The mother-in-law thought that although the younger son-in-law was not educated, he was very sensible, and she was very happy.

Swallowing clams with shells

During the meal, the eldest son-in-law broke a clam and ate it, and then wrapped the shell with a handkerchief, and then ate the bean noodle soup. The younger son-in-law didn’t pay attention and thought that the eldest son-in-law ate the clam with the shell, thinking that this might be a polite way to eat. So, he also took a clam and put it in his mouth, trying hard to swallow it down his throat. It was easier said than done, and he was choked.

Moves that can’t be learned

Seeing his brother-in-law’s silly look, the eldest son-in-law couldn’t help laughing, but the bean noodles he had just swallowed came out of his nostrils.

Seeing this, the silly son-in-law was terrified and hurriedly spit out the clam shell, saying repeatedly: “Uncle, your ‘toad swallowing saliva’ has choked me to death. This ‘noodles piercing the nose’ is really something I can’t learn!” The eldest son-in-law didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but everyone was amused and laughed.