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Tired. The constant sending of resumes, the hopeful-turned-hopeless interviews, the constant rejections we faced. Take a breather, fellas.
加油! I don't know about you, but I find this simple, yet over-used phrase interesting. Just 2 chinese characters and it translates the encouraging message "Endure & keep striving, you can do it!" As effective as it should be, I kinda felt that it really didn't mean much to a person who lives with the constant"rejection in my face" over a period of time.
加油! I don't know about you, but I find this simple, yet over-used phrase interesting. Just 2 chinese characters and it translates the encouraging message "Endure & keep striving, you can do it!" As effective as it should be, I kinda felt that it really didn't mean much to a person who lives with the constant"rejection in my face" over a period of time.
You know the term "conditioning" ? It spells that a constant practice soon loses its real meaning and turns into a meaningless habit. Throughout my job search, this phrase "加油!" appears in most of my inbox messages from my loving friends. Now, I don't mean to be a "meanie", I appreciate their love, but the conditioning effect really did its trick on me.
And so, I went on to check on the origins of the phrase.
Here is a translation of the real story, according to the all-knowing international network of computers.
Liu2 Bo2 Wen1 (刘伯温) (1311-1375) was a famous Ming Dynasty general. But he always regretted that he did not live in the same era as the cleverest and most famous general of all time, Zhu1 Ge3 Liang4 (诸葛亮) (181-234). Since Zhuge Liang was long dead, there was no way for Liu Bowen to try and match wits with him. One day Liu and his army came upon a plum tree forest. His mouth was dry and he spat on the ground, but when the spit hit the ground, it made a sharp "splat" sound. Perplexed, he ordered his men to cut the grass and brush around the spot to see what was there that would make such a noise. To his surprise, he found a stone monument that read: "Liu Bowen spat here." To his even further surprise, the monument was signed by Zhuge Kongming, the courtesy name of Zhuge Liang.
He was impressed that Zhuge Liang would be that clever as to predict that Liu would spit there one day, but he was still not convinced that Zhuge Liang was smarter than he, so he kept going into the forest. Before long, he came upon a tomb. Taking a closer look, he discovered that it was none other than the grave of Zhuge Liang. He thought to himself, "Not bad, Zhuge Liang. You predicted that I would spit here on this day, but I bet you couldn't predict that I would find your tomb."So Liu had his men open up the tomb, and he walked in by himself. He looked around and finally found Zhuge's sarcophagus. Next to it was a small oil lamp, that was flickering, just on the verge of running out of oil. Liu thought: "Hmph. Everyone says how clever and awesome you were, but here you are today, with your altar lamp about to extinguish itself."But then he noticed next to the lamp was a piece of parchment, so he looked at it more closely.
On the paper was written: "Old Liu, Old Liu, 加油 , 加油." At this, he was dumbfounded, and immediately kowtowed before the sarcophagus three times. He then swept the tomb, out of newfound respect for Zhuge Liang. Henceforth the phrase "加油" has been used to encourage people.
He was impressed that Zhuge Liang would be that clever as to predict that Liu would spit there one day, but he was still not convinced that Zhuge Liang was smarter than he, so he kept going into the forest. Before long, he came upon a tomb. Taking a closer look, he discovered that it was none other than the grave of Zhuge Liang. He thought to himself, "Not bad, Zhuge Liang. You predicted that I would spit here on this day, but I bet you couldn't predict that I would find your tomb."So Liu had his men open up the tomb, and he walked in by himself. He looked around and finally found Zhuge's sarcophagus. Next to it was a small oil lamp, that was flickering, just on the verge of running out of oil. Liu thought: "Hmph. Everyone says how clever and awesome you were, but here you are today, with your altar lamp about to extinguish itself."But then he noticed next to the lamp was a piece of parchment, so he looked at it more closely.
On the paper was written: "Old Liu, Old Liu, 加油 , 加油." At this, he was dumbfounded, and immediately kowtowed before the sarcophagus three times. He then swept the tomb, out of newfound respect for Zhuge Liang. Henceforth the phrase "加油" has been used to encourage people.
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