Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

khó ở làng, sang ở thiên-hạ

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

It's hard to be a big fish in a small pond, but easy to thrive in a wider world.

Literally: hard in village, easy in the world

Examples

Ở làng nhỏ thì khó nổi bật, nhưng khi sang thành phố lớn thì dễ thành công.It's hard to stand out in a small village, but when moving to a big city, it's easy to succeed.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). 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 “khó ở làng, sang ở thiên-hạ” mean?

It's hard to be a big fish in a small pond, but easy to thrive in a wider world. Literally: hard in village, easy in the world

Is “khó ở làng, sang ở thiên-hạ” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.