I stayed at work for basically the regular schedule – 2:30 to 10:00. I didn’t teach any classes, but I did some useful things, discussed some things with the boss, finished editing and posting the speech test videos from last week, talked to a lot of students in the corridors. I didn’t, in fact, feel compelled to surf the internet, although I did experience some boredom.
So there I was, sitting at work, and a little bit bored, because I was waiting on something that I needed to do later on but I didn’t have much to do right at that moment.
Looking for something to do, my eye landed on one of the aphorisms Curt has posted on the wall near the door.
미치지 않으면 미치지 못한다
michi-ji anh-eu-myeon michi-ji mot-han-da
be-passionate-PRENEG not-be-IF reach[something]-PRENEG can’t-do-PRES
This expression relies on the double-meaning of the verb 미치다, which can mean both “to be crazy” (i.e. passionate) as well as to reach some goal.
Hence, quite loosely, “If we are not passionate, we will never reach any goal.“