英语阅读：Home truth 家丑不可外扬
Reader question: What is a “home truths”, as in this headline – It’s timeto tell America some home truths, Prime Minister (Guardian Observer, March 1,
2009)?
My comments: Home truths are the bitter and unpleasant truths, or facts
that you don’t always tell other people if you can help it.
Well, because folks by nature don’t want to hear what is jarring to the
ear.
It’s called “home truths” because presumably these facts are best kept at
home, in house, in the inner circle, within the family and not to be known by
outsiders, you know, relatives, neighbors and society at large. The term is
quite reminiscent, you see, of a Chinese saying in similar vein, 家丑不可外扬.
Well, because you do not want to air your dirty linen in public, 家丑 being
the dirty linen - dark and dirty secrets, all the terrible things Chinese family
members do to each other (No examples however, not here, not this time ^-^).
If you tell someone the home truth, you give the fact as it is, calling a
spade a spade. You tell it bluntly – no hiding anything and no equivocating.
That is, you don’t have to choose your words but simply give a straight forward
account, telling whole story, warts and all – including the bad, and in fact
especially the bad, the things they may not expect to hear.
In fact, in telling them the home truths, you often mean to critique,
criticize and condemn.
Here are a few examples of home truths from news headlines: 1. Home truth
for Glazers: only the best will suffice - The Independent, November 27, 2005. 2.
Chelsea 0 Newcastle 0: Scolari faces home truth - DailyMail.co.uk, November 23,
2008. 3. Home truth: IT needs to zoom in on local growth - IndianTimes.com, July
31, 2003.
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