笨鸟先飞

Pronunciation: bèn niǎo xiān fēi Literal meaning: The clumsy bird flies first

Origin & Usage

The clumsy (笨) bird (鸟) sets off first (先飞). The phrase belongs to vernacular drama and is most often said by the person about themselves, which is where its charm is: it concedes the disadvantage and then treats it as a scheduling problem rather than a verdict. That makes it a genuinely useful thing for a learner to be able to say. It is standard in Chinese talk about study and preparation, and it is the polite way to explain why you started early.

Examples

English: "Knowing she needed more practice, she always arrived first at training"

Chinese: 知道自己需要更多练习，她总是第一个到达训练场