By: Karen Ortiz
Cultures all around the world have sets of proverbs they use which help shape their worldviews. So what is a proverb? A proverb is a short sentence that can be used to express some sort of valuable truth or life lesson.
During my time in South Africa I managed to hear a couple proverbs from some of my professors. I never fully grasped the meaning of these proverbs until I did more research. Lucky for me, through my research I found many more that resonated with me. I now try to put these into practice as much as I can. Here they are:
You cannot drink medicine on behalf of a sick person
When a bird builds its nest it uses the feathers of other birds
If you can’t seem to figure out the meaning of these – let me help explain these a bit. The first one essentially is saying that with everything you do, you must put all of your energy into it, and then reap the fruits of your labor. The second one describes the idea that no matter how hard things may be, or how much you might want to help, sometimes people must be able to face challenges on their own. Finally, the last one is saying that you should not forget the importance of cooperating with people and understanding them in order to solve problems.
There are many more proverbs out there for us to look at and learn from. I strongly encourage you to seek out conversations with those around you to hear some of their own proverbs.
If you are interested in learning more about our South Africa program, please explore here: https://stcloudstate.studioabroad.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgramAngular&id=35285