Learn Chinese chengyu(means idiom): hu2lun2 tun1zao3

Today, let’s learn Chinese chengyu(means idiom): 囫囵吞枣(hu2lun2 tun1zao3). In the Chinese idiom "囫囵吞枣 (hu2lun2 tun1zao3)", "囫囵 (hu2lun2)" means "the whole;" "吞 (tun1)" means to "swallow", "枣 (zao3)" is "date" This idiom means "to eat the date whole."

Putonghua online learning via this online Chinese idiomatic story:

A long time ago, a person who considered himself clever went to a friend's party. Everyone was chatting together while eating fruits. A guest among the group said, "It is hard to have the best of both worlds. Let's take eating fruits as an example. Pears are good for our teeth, but they harm our stomachs if we eat too many of them. Likewise, dates are good for our stomachs, but bad for our teeth." The others agreed with the guest. The man who considered himself clever continued the conversation by saying, "This problem is easy to solve. We can discard the pulps when eating pears in order to avoid hurting our stomachs, and we can also eat the dates whole in order to protect our teeth."

In jest, a fellow guest at the party remarked, "You really 囫囵吞枣 (hu2lun2 tun1zao3) eat dates whole!” Following this incident, Chinese people often use this idiom to point out when a person accepts information without digesting and analyzing it.

There is an example from online Putonghua learning:

Du2shu1 bu4neng2 hu2lun2tun1zao3, er2yao4 cong3zhong1 xi1qu3 zi4ji3 xu1yao4 de3 dong3xi.
读书       不能         囫囵吞枣，     而要     从中         吸取  自己 需要   的   东西。

Do not read books without analyzing the content; each person must take from a text the parts that are important to him or her.

There are many Chinese language knowledge can be found on the internet so that e study Chinese become more and more popular. More Chinese idioms story are waiting for you in my blog, see you next time!

Source: http://peacebucket.buzznet.com/user/journal/20465741/learn-chinese-chengyu-means-idiom/