- English translation
Here comes the lamb to show its own father how to graze.
- Literal wording
The lamb has come to teach its father grazing.
- Meaning and lesson
The picture reverses the expected order of instruction: a young lamb proposes to show its father how to graze, an activity the older animal has carried out every day of its life. The one with the least experience sets itself up as the teacher of the one with the most.
Applied to people, the saying targets someone inexperienced who presumes to instruct a person long practiced in the very skill at issue. The absurdity of the scene marks such advice as misplaced and points out that the roles of teacher and learner have been turned around.
- When it is used
Suited to moments when a beginner or younger person offers instruction to someone who has long practiced the same task, as a way of pointing out that the expected roles of teacher and learner have been reversed.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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