Last night at dinner I bit my tongue – hard. It was one of those things where I wasn’t paying attention and instead of eggplant, I caught my own tongue. Even this morning my tongue feels fat and a little swollen.
Ouch.
As we were walking home after the fact, my husband asked how I was feeling and then said that I must have not eaten enough at dinner.
I looked at him with skepticism as I had eaten a ton – probably too much – and asked him to explain.
He said in his hometown if you bite your tongue it means that you are still hungry – no matter how much you’ve already eaten – whereas if you bite the inside of your cheek it means you have eaten too much and are full.
I don’t know if this is common throughout China, or specific to where Li grew up but I had not heard of any assumptions that occur with biting your tongue before.
Have you?
Not heard of these meanings… but can completely relate and super ouch!
In our country, it is said that somebody is talking about you behind your back or that someone misses you and told somebody about it. :)
Interesting – in China if you sneeze they say someone misses you.
Interesting! I love to learn about the folklore of a place. I hope your tongue feels better!
All well at this point – it was a short term issue!
my grandmother told me that biting your tongue means your making the wrong decision or decisions in some area of your life. i don’t know how much i believe it, but whenever i bite my tongue i take a step back and rethink things.
That is an interesting one – what culture was your grandmother from? Stepping back and rethinking is normally a good thing.