ESL stories – Living, Learning & Teaching

“Easy come, easy go.”

😈 The Villain (The Lottery Winner)
Imagine you find $100 on the street. Do you put it in the bank? No!

You buy expensive pizza, you buy a silly hat you will never wear, and you treat your friends to drinks.

Why? because you didn’t bleed for that money. It feels like “Monopoly money.”

The Result? By Tuesday, the money is gone. You are back to zero.

You didn’t respect the gain, so the loss means nothing. You are trapped in a cycle of luck, not success. 🎰

😇 The Hero (The Earner)
You work 10 hours of overtime to earn that same $100. Your back hurts. Your eyes are tired.

When you get the money, do you buy the silly hat? Absolutely not.

You respect every cent. You save it or spend it on something valuable.

The Result? That money builds your future. Because it came hard, it stays long. You understand value. 🛡️

⚖️ The Reality
Value is tied to Struggle. We often wish for things to be easy.

We want the “Get Rich Quick” scheme. We want to speak fluent English in 3 days.

But here is the brutal truth: If you get it without effort, you will lose it without regret.

💎 The Secret
The universe has a balance. The effort you put in acts like “glue.” Hard work makes success stick to you. Luck is slippery.

🧐 The Anatomy of the Proverb

This phrase is short, rhythmic, and brutally honest.

Easy (Adverb/Adjective): Without difficulty or effort. ☁️

Come (Verb): To arrive; to happen.

Go (Verb): To leave; to be lost.

Simpler Version: What you get quickly, you lose quickly.

📚 Vocabulary Vault

Fleeting (Adjective): Lasting for a very short time. (e.g., “His fame was fleeting.”) 💨

Squander (Verb): To waste (something, especially money or time) in a reckless and foolish manner.

Effortless (Adjective): Requiring no physical or mental exertion.

Appreciate (Verb): To recognize the full worth of something. (We appreciate what we work for!).

Windfall (Noun): A piece of unexpected good fortune, typically one that involves receiving a large amount of money. 💰

🧠 Grammar Focus: Parallelism & Antonyms

This proverb is beautiful because it is perfectly balanced (Parallel Structure).

Antonyms (Opposites)

Come ↔️ Go

In English, we love using opposites to show balance.

Ellipsis (The Missing Words)

The full grammar sentence would be: “(What is) easy (to) come, (is) easy (to) go.”

But in proverbs, we cut the extra words for speed and impact.

📜 History: Origin and Spread

This isn’t just English; it’s human nature.

The Origin: The phrase became popular in the 1600s in England, but the idea is ancient. It was originally used to describe people who spent their money wildly because they didn’t work for it.

Global Cousins

🇹🇷 Turkish: “Haydan gelen huya gider.” (What comes from ‘Hay’ goes to ‘Hu’ / What comes from nothing goes to nothing.) — The perfect match!

🇪🇸 Spanish: “Lo que viene fácil, fácil se va.”

🇫🇷 French: “Ce qui vient de la flûte s’en va au tambour.” (What comes from the flute goes to the drum.)

🎯 Impact on Life: The Pros & Cons

✅ The Pros (The Comfort)

Consolation: Did you lose your lucky pen? Did your “lucky” win in a video game disappear? It’s okay. It wasn’t yours to begin with. This quote helps you accept loss peacefully.

❌ The Cons (The Warning)

Disrespect: If you are talented (easy for you), you might not practice. Then, a hard worker will beat you. Talent is “easy come,” but discipline keeps it from “going.”

🎭 Short Story: The Golden Corn

Let’s visit the farm to see this law in action.

🌟 The Setup: A farmer drops a bag of gold coins and a bag of corn in the yard.

🐔 The Chicken (The Hard Worker): The Chicken ignores the gold. She sees the corn scattered in the mud. She scratches the dirt for hours. Peck, scratch, peck. She works for every single grain.

The Result: She is full, strong, and appreciates her meal. She stores the extra corn carefully. She keeps what she earned.

🐸 The Frog (The Lucky Finder): The Frog hops by and sees a shiny gold coin on a lily pad. “Wow! I’m rich!” he croaks. He didn’t hunt for it. He didn’t swim for it. It was just there. He buys a delicious fly from a bug merchant. He swallows it in one second. Gulp.

The Result: The flavor is gone instantly. He is hungry again. He looks for another free coin, but there are none left. He is sad and empty.

🐈 The Cat (The Wise Observer): The Cat watches them both from the fence. The Frog cries about being hungry again. The Cat licks her paw and says: “Don’t cry, little Frog. You found it by luck, you lost it by luck. Easy come, easy go.”

The Moral: Be the Chicken. Scratch for your success. What you dig for, you keep. 🌽

🎓 Lesson for English Learners

Don’t Rely on Translation Apps.

Situation: You have homework. You type the Thai sentence into Google Translate, copy the English, and hand it in. You get an “A”.

The Problem: Two weeks later, you have an exam. You look at the paper and your mind is blank.

You Say: “But I got an A on the homework!”

The Reality: That “A” was Easy Come (Google gave it to you). The knowledge is Easy Go (It left your brain immediately).

The Fix: Struggle with the dictionary. Write the sentence yourself. Make mistakes. The English you struggle to learn is the English you will remember forever.