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Ăn cơm nhà vác tù và hàng tổng

Meaning: To do thankless public work at your own expense.

Language: Vietnamese

Literally: To eat your own rice but blow the village horn

Category: Daily Life

Origin: Feeding yourself while serving as the unpaid village crier captures toil that is both unrewarded and unappreciated.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • N'hi ha per llogar-hi cadires — The drama is so good it's worth watching like a show.
  • Déu n'hi do — Wow — that's quite something.
  • Hy is van sy trollie af — He has lost his mind.
  • Þetta reddast — Things will work out fine in the end.
  • Glavom kroz zid — To stubbornly attempt the impossible.
  • Okrenuti ploču — To abruptly change your tune.

More Vietnamese idioms

  • Đứng núi này trông núi nọ — Never satisfied with what you have; the grass is always greener.
  • Ăn cháo đá bát — To be ungrateful and turn on those who helped you.
  • Nước đổ lá khoai — Advice or effort that has no effect at all; in one ear and out the other.
  • Cõng rắn cắn gà nhà — To bring in an outsider who harms your own people.

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