đói thì ăn ngô, ăn khoai, đừng ở với dượng, điếc tai láng giềng
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Be self-sufficient rather than rely on others
Literally: when hungry eat corn, eat sweet potato, don't live with uncle, deaf to neighbor's gossip
Examples
Đói thì ăn ngô, ăn khoai, đừng ở với dượng, điếc tai láng giềng, tôi sẽ tự mở cửa hàng của mình.I will open my own store, being self-sufficient rather than relying on others.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Vietnamese Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “đói thì ăn ngô, ăn khoai, đừng ở với dượng, điếc tai láng giềng” mean?
Be self-sufficient rather than rely on others Literally: when hungry eat corn, eat sweet potato, don't live with uncle, deaf to neighbor's gossip
Is “đói thì ăn ngô, ăn khoai, đừng ở với dượng, điếc tai láng giềng” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.