Yilan school gifts grads pens with misprinted proverb
Yilan school gifts grads pens with misprinted proverb
2026-06-16
Another day, another creative graduation gift! Yuan Shan Junior High School in Yilan gifted its grads pens that say “The early worm gets the bird” — quite the difference from the usual phrase. The school explained that it was a misprint by the factory 13 years ago, but later became a massive hit. It eventually morphed into an inspirational phrase, meant to tell students that although their school is small, its students have grand ambitions.
This ordinary pencil case comes with an ordinary pen with an inspirational phrase. The early bird gets the... wait a minute. It says “The early worm gets the bird!” Is it a typo?
Member of public
I was confused for a moment, but then it made me smile. I think its pretty clever. It’s like a brain teaser, using a clever way to subvert your logic.
This is one of 100 pens given to graduates of Yilan’s Yuan Shan Junior High School as a gift this year. By subverting the classic proverb “The early bird gets the worm,” it’s generated a lot of discussion and proven popular among students.
Student
It subverts tradition.
Student
Maybe the school means to encourage us to break through our limits. To become another you and achieve things you normally wouldn’t be able to do.
But make no mistake: This isn’t a cynical phrase meaning the worm will get eaten by the bird. The school clarified that 13 years ago, they asked the manufacturer to make pens in both Chinese and English. The English turned out right, but the Chinese swapped the words for bird and worm. A student noticed and reported it to the school, but since it was funny and inspirational in its own way, they decided to make it a tradition.
Chu Yung-chih
Head of student affairs
We’re a small school, meaning we’re “early worms.” But even though we’re small, our students have grand ambitions. So to us, this misprinted phrase can serve as a source of great strength.
Yilan’s Yuan Shan Junior High only has 212 students across 10 classes, averaging out to fewer than five classes per grade. Although small like the worm in the phrase, they’ve found the limelight with this creative gift.
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早起蟲兒有鳥吃？員山國中畢業禮玩創意
2026-06-16
又有創意畢業禮物！宜蘭員山國中致贈畢業生的筆，寫著「早起的蟲兒有鳥吃」，與俗諺「早起的鳥兒有蟲吃」，大不相同，校方還原13年前廠商誤植，把鳥和蟲寫反，後來卻大受歡迎，成了勵志金句，希望表達學校雖小，學生卻有宏大的志願。
素色鉛筆盒，搭配一隻原子筆，上頭寫的是勵志的一句話，早起的鳥兒，欸不對，怎麼會是早起的蟲兒有鳥吃？難道是印錯了嗎？
[[民眾]]
“納悶了一下，可是會莞爾一笑，我會覺得說這還蠻有梗的。（像）腦筋急轉彎，都是用很有梗的方式，然後顛覆你的邏輯。”
這是宜蘭縣員山國中，送給學生的畢業禮物，其中也準備了100支這樣的紀念筆，上頭把過去習以為常的俗諺早起鳥兒有蟲吃，改成了早起的蟲兒有鳥吃，引發話題十足，也相當受到學生歡迎。
[[員山國中學生]]
“蠻顛覆傳統的。
[[員山國中學生]]
“可能學校的用意就是，想要讓我們突破自己吧，就是換一個身份，然後去做出這個身份，可能沒辦法做到的事情。”
不過這可不是在反諷，早起的蟲兒被鳥吃，校方還原，十三年前請廠商製作中英文的雙語標語，結果英文正確，中文卻誤植為早起蟲兒有鳥吃，有女同學發現報告校方，不過因為有笑點又有勵志作用，校方決定延用這美麗的錯誤。
[[員山國中學務主任 朱永熾]]
“我們雖然是小校，那我們就是早起的蟲兒，但是因為我們雖然小校，我們的學生也少，可是我們（有），比較宏大的志願跟目標，所以對於這一句，誤植的中文對我們來說，也是可以當成我們強大的力量。”
宜蘭縣員山國中，學生只有212人，班級10個班，等於一個年級不到5班，這次因為創意畢業禮物意外引發關注。
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