半bàn途tú而ér废fèi

Give Up Halfway

A breakdown of the characters in 半途而废 (bàn tú ér fèi)
半 (bàn): half
途 (tú): way or road (路途-lù tú)
而 (ér): conjunction meaning “but” here
废 (fèi): to abandon (eg. 废弃–fèi qì )

Is there a shortcut to Chinese fluency?
Nope.
There are ways to learn faster or better, but to achieve fluency, there is one key condition: you have to persevere and not give up. This brings us to our essential chengyu: 半途而废 (bàn tú ér fèi).

半途而废 means to start doing something, only to give up halfway. Literally, it means to walk half the road and give up.

Examples

“运动不能半途而废，要坚持不懈”
“yùndòng bùnéng bàntúérfèi, yào jiānchíbúxiè”
“You can’t give up halfway with exercising - you need to persevere”

“世界上只有一种失败它叫做半途而废”
“shìjiè shàng zhǐyǒu yīzhǒng shībài tā jiàozuò bàntúérfèi”
“In the world there is only one kind of failure, and it is called giving up halfway”

“普京:做事不喜欢半途而废因此打算竞选总统”
“pǔjīng: zuòshì bú xǐhuān bàntúérfèi yīncǐ dǎsuàn jìngxuǎn zǒngtǒng”
“Putin: I don’t like to give up halfway when doing things so I plan on running for president”

“我不是半途而废的人”
“wǒ búshì bàntúérfèi de rén”
“I’m not someone who gives up halfway”