Wisdom

The tales and sayings Vietnamese children grow up on — both languages on the same page, so you can read one aloud and pass the other on. Every one is public domain and retold in our own words, never lifted from a modern translation.

Folk tales · Cổ tích

Trạng Quỳnh và cái quạt

The Fan That Cost Nothing — A trickster sells a rich man something worthless by making him ask for it first.

Hạt gạo và cái kho

The Grain of Rice — A trickster asks to be paid one grain of rice, doubled every day. The governor agrees without counting.

Cây tre trăm đốt

The Hundred-Knot Bamboo — A landlord promises his daughter to a farmhand, then sets him an impossible task. Two magic words settle it.

Trí khôn của ta đây

Why the Buffalo Has No Top Teeth — A tiger wants to see the thing that makes men stronger than tigers. The farmer says he left it at home.

Proverbs · Tục ngữ

Uống nước nhớ nguồn

Drink the Water, Remember the Source — The same debt as the orchard proverb, but running backwards through generations instead of years.

Có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim

Grind Iron Long Enough and You Get a Needle — The Vietnamese proverb for persistence — and it is deliberately not about talent.

Ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây

Remember Who Planted the Tree — The most-quoted Vietnamese proverb about gratitude — and it is about labour, not politeness.