My second favorite Japanese expression*, as many of my friends can tiredly confirm, is 七転び八起き (nanakorobi yaoki), which I prefer to loosely translate as Fall Down Twice, Get Up Thrice - the rhyming sounds better to my ears than the actual translation, which is fall down seven times, but get up eight times. I think this is a great proverb for the long, hard slog to joining the Foreign Service.
Following the yahoo boards can be great for insight into the FS life, advice on taking the tests, and especially for navigating the ins and outs of the process. But it's also a place where you will read about people's heartbreaks and disappointments after they fail to pass the FSOT, PNQ, OA, clearances, final adjudication or the register. Mrs. FSOWannabe didn't get through the PNQ's last year. I have an acquaintance that failed the OA twice (and received a lower score on the second go-round). And then there are, like the FSOWannabes, other couples that are hoping to pass the OA and get into the Foreign Service together. Some are successful, and some are not. I am truly sad for everyone that goes through this process only to be set back at some stage. I'm particularly sympathetic to those that fail and have no explanation for why (I'm looking at you, QEP and OA evaluators).
I sincerely believe that the tragic flaw in most people, including myself, is the willingness to give up or settle on your dreams. As I get older, I'm increasingly aware that life is too short to settle for 'almost' or 'not quite' anymore (Hello, mid-life crisis!). So if you want something bad enough you need to keep trying. Pick yourself off the ground, brush off the disappointment, and re-orient yourself back toward the goal. There's nothing wrong with failing, but I think it's a tragedy when you give up on a dream.
* The first is 秋茄子は嫁に食わすな (Akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna), which translates as "Don't let your daughter-in-law eat your autumn eggplants. " You don't really need to know what it refers to to realize that's just hilarious all on its own.
* The first is 秋茄子は嫁に食わすな (Akinasu wa yome ni kuwasuna), which translates as "Don't let your daughter-in-law eat your autumn eggplants. " You don't really need to know what it refers to to realize that's just hilarious all on its own.
5 comments:
I feel like you're talking to me...if so, thanks...I would say our main question right now is- is it his dream or mine? Probably relevant for you two as well. I agree w you- I would keep persevering for quite a while to achieve this dream (oh man, is that what I'm having- a midlife crisis???) but not sure about him.
oh by the way, does the eggplant one have a cultural meaning behind it? I love it.
Here's my favorite, from Hausa:
"sannu, sannu, bata hana zuwa"
Slowly, slowly doesn't prevent you from getting there.
Bfiles,
Your husband might have inspired this a bit - there's a lot of highly qualified and highly disappointed people out there chasing the FS dream.
The eggplant proverb is about not giving stuff you care about to people who don't cherish things the way you do - and although autumn eggplant is considered extra tasty, I don't think there is any cultural context.
Hausa? I had to google that to figure where that's from! How did you learn Hausa?
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger.. it's the first proverb they teach us as we struggle through language training. Volunteers would whip it out when villagers told us "ba Hausa" (no Hausa) and they would be impressed!
I think it's my new motto again!
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