Teach fish how to swim

Teach fish how to swim is an idiomatic expression dervied from the Latin proverb piscem natare docem. The phrase focuses attention on the self-sufficient perception of those who know how to do every thing better than the experts.[1]

A corollary idiomatic phrase is part of common usage in Chinese (班门弄斧)[2]

Alternate applications include computer programming.[3]

Origins

Erasmus attributed the origins of the phrase to Diogenianus.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ Belton, John Devoe. (1891). A Literary Manual of Foreign Quotations, Ancient and Modern, p. 151. at Google Books
  2. ^ Muehl, Louis Baker et al. (1999). Trading Cultures in the Classroom: Two American Teachers in China, p. 18 at Google Books; 班门弄斧 = display one's slight skill before an expert eg 在你面前班门弄斧,太不好意思了 (I'm making a fool of myself trying to show off before an expert like you)
  3. ^ Farrell, Stephen et al. (2001). "How to Teach a Fish to Swim," in Visual Languages/Human-Centric Computing Languages and Environments, pp. 158-164.
  4. ^ Erasmus, Desiderius et al. (1974). Collected Works of Erasmus, p. 134. at Google Books; compare Ἰχθὺν νηχέσθαι διδάσκεις

References