40 Korean Success and Effort Idioms

Enduring bone-scraping pain to strive

Working day and night without rest

Farming by day, reading by night

Sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall (determined effort)

Reading by firefly and snow light (studying in hardship)

Striving to strengthen oneself without rest

Working until bones turn to powder

Unbending even after hundred defeats

A fool moving mountains (persistent effort)

Grinding an axe into a needle (power of persistence)

Water drops pierce stone

Firmly patient and unshakeable

Fall seven times, rise eight

Ascending the dragon gate (gateway to success)

Returning home in silk robes (success)

Establishing oneself and making a name

Rising in the world

Achieving merit and fame

Three visits to the thatched cottage (seeking talent)

Learning the old to know the new

Polishing each other (mutual growth)

Hearing one, knowing ten

Blue comes from indigo but is bluer (student surpasses teacher)

Teaching and learning grow together

Learning has no end

Foresight to see ahead

The time is not yet ripe

Equal opportunity for all

Good opportunities may come

A chance that comes once in a thousand years

Prepare and have no worries