Tsume no Aka wo Senjite Nomu (爪の垢を煎じて飲む - Taking a Lesson from Someone)

I think that many people want to model after an excellent person and become a person like him/her.

Such an act or thought is expressed as tsume no aka wo senjite nomu (爪の垢を煎じて飲む) in Japanese.

Tsume (爪) means "nail," aka (垢) means "grim" or "dirt," senjite (煎じて) means "to brew something," and nomu (飲む) means "to drink something."

Therefore, the literal meaning of this proverb is "to brew someone's nail jam and drink it," but of course we don't such a thing and there is no meaning to drink it.

This proverb represents the feeling that people want to approach and model after an excellent person even a little by extracting a part of the person and drinking it.

爪の垢を煎じて飲む

多くの人は、優れた人を模範とし、あやかりたいと思うものです。

その行為や考えを「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」ということわざで表現することがあります。

「爪」は "nail," 「垢」は "dirt," 「煎じて」は "to brew something" 「飲む」は "to drink something" を意味します。

文字通りの意味は "to drink" ですが、もちろん実際に飲むわけでもなく、飲んだところで意味もありません。

このことわざは、優れた人の成分を抽出して飲むことで、少しでもその人に近づきたいという気持ちを表しています。

• I think that many people want to model after an excellent person and become a person like him/her.
• I think that many people look up to an excellent person and want to become a person like him/her.

  People don't really model themselves after something, although they can model things other than people (like modeling a machine off another person's.)

• Such an act or thought is expressed as tsume no aka wo senjite nomu (爪の垢を煎じて飲む) in Japanese.
• This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!

• Tsume (爪) means "nail," aka (垢) means "grim" or "dirt," senjite (煎じて) means "to brew something," and nomu (飲む) means "to drink something."
• This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!

• Therefore, the literal meaning of this proverb is "to brew someone's nail jam and drink it," but of course we don't such a thing and there is no meaning to drink it.
• Therefore, the literal meaning of this proverb is "to brew someone's nail jam and drink it," but of course we don't do such a thing (or "do that" rather than "do such a thing") and there is no meaning to drink it.

  The crossed out part is redundant so I think it sounds better without it.

• This proverb represents the feeling that people want to approach and model after an excellent person even a little by extracting a part of the person and drinking it.
• This proverb represents the feeling that people want to become like an excellent person even a little by extracting a part of the person and drinking it.

Wow, what an interesting proverb! If taken literally, it's like the polyjuice potion in Harry Potter, or something a witch in a fairy tale would do. Most English proverbs are about animals (you can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink, when pigs fly, ect), so hearing ones about humans from other cultures is always interesting.