不耻下问
bù chǐ xià wèn
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Traditional: 不恥下問
Not too proud to learn from people who are younger, lower in rank or less educated than you. Used to praise a modest, eager attitude to learning.
Không coi việc hỏi người kém mình về tuổi tác, địa vị hay học vấn là điều đáng xấu hổ. Dùng để khen thái độ khiêm tốn, ham học hỏi.
Register: neutral
Examples
Editorial example (illustrative, not a corpus attestation) — awaiting a native-speaker check
Sources & notes
Hán-Việt bridge batch 062 (2026-11-13). Headword, Traditional form and pinyin checked against CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0) source ↗ · Hán-Việt reading: Unihan kVietnamese source ↗ ; en.wiktionary Vietnamese entries via kaikki.org extract, snapshot 2026-07-31 (CC BY-SA 4.0): Hán-Việt reading 耻/恥 = sỉ, 问/問 = vấn · Vietnamese cognate: Idiomer entry “bất sỉ hạ vấn” (bat-si-ha-van). Definition, literal gloss and example sentence are original; the example has not had a native-speaker check yet.
Equivalents & related
Common questions
What does “不耻下问” mean?
Not too proud to learn from people who are younger, lower in rank or less educated than you. Used to praise a modest, eager attitude to learning. Literally: not ashamed to ask those below
Is “不耻下问” formal or informal?
不耻下问 is generally neutral.