After teaching my son 人山人海, I thought I would focus on idioms that contain numbers because my son can more or less recognise the Chinese characters denoting numbers.

When I saw this character-themed stroller at the neighbourhood cart, I immediately knew the next idiom I would teach my son: 一石二鸟 (yī shí èr niǎo)

Okay, let me explain the characters one by one and see if you can put two and two together:

一: one 石: stone 二: two 鸟: birds

Does a similar English saying come to mind? That’s right! This idiom means “killing two birds with one stone” aka “achieving two goals with one action”.

Maybe your curiosity is piqued. You wonder why English and Chinese came up with the same idiomatic phrase, despite being worlds apart. If my Google research skills don’t fail me, it seems that the Japanese translated “kill two birds with one stone” into their language. Subsequently, the Chinese borrowed 一石二鸟 wholesale and used it for Mandarin.

This means that you can say this idiom in Japanese as well. But you got to recognise how 鸟 is written differently in Japanese and memorise the Japanese pronunciation. Here it is:

"一石二鳥" (ishi ni chō)

Sensei hopes that you will be able to marry your interests and create synergy so that you don’t have to expend your efforts too much in regard to achieving your goals. Remember, kill two birds with one stone! 一石二鸟.