[Korean Culture & Language] Can't see the forest for the trees

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Westerners say ‘One can’t see the forest for the trees’ when someone is too preoccupied with the details of a problem that they can’t see the situation as a whole. It usually implies that the person is confused, unable to think clearly, or unable to complete a more important task because they are focused on something less important. 

Koreans say ‘대들보 썩는 줄 모르고 기왓장 아끼는 격’


대들보 means pillar
썩다 means getting rotten
기왓장 means roofing tile
아끼다 means trying to save
격 refers to ‘a situation’


It is translated as ‘Trying to save roofing tiles while failing to realize that the pillar is rotting’.

The idiom describes one’s foolish behavior of focusing on a less important subject, which leads them to forget about the more important matter, resulting in a huge loss in the future.


Similar Korean idiom is ‘막걸리 거르려다 지게미도 못 건진다’. 

막걸리 is Korea’s oldest alcoholic beverage, prepared from rice and a Korean fermentation starter called Nuruk. With six to ten percent alcohol content, 막걸리s usually have a somewhat sweet, acidic, bitter flavor and a hazy look. 

‘지게미’ is another word for ‘찌꺼기,’ which means ‘dregs’ or ‘sediment’

‘건지다’ means ‘save’ or ‘earn’

The proverb is directly translated as ‘One couldn’t even save dregs, trying to make 막걸리(Makgeolli)’. It means ‘If you try to bite off more than you can chew, you will only lose things’.

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