Drill in Chinese / Japanese...

鑿壁偷光 is a Chinese proverb that means “Bore a hole in the wall to make use of the neighbor's light to study.”

This is a nice gift for a very studious person.

Kuang Heng was born during the Western Han period. He has been very fond of reading ever since he was young. However, he could not attend school since his family was poor, and he had to borrow books from people to learn.

To borrow these books, he normally did chores for people who had them. When he became older, he had to work in the field from sunrise to sunset since his family's financial situation did not improve. Thus, he tried to study at night, but he had no lamp.

One day, he noticed the light from the neighbor's house coming through a crack in the wall. This made him very happy, so he dug a larger hole from the crack and read in the light that shone through. This diligent study eventually made him an accomplished person.

鍛煉/鍛鍊 means to exercise in much the same way we use the word exercise in English.

This can be exercising your body at the gym or exercising your mind in studies. Most of the time, this refers to physical exercise.

This can also be translated as to temper, to toughen, to train, to drill, to forge, or simply discipline.

練 is a Chinese, Japanese, and Korean word that is the simplest way to say practice, train, drill, exercise, or to describe the effort taken to perfect one's skill.

There is more than one way to translate the ancient Chinese military proverb, 平时多流汗战时少流血. Here are a few interpretations:

A drop of sweat spent in a drill is a drop of blood saved in war.

More practice will give one a better chance of success in real situations.

The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.

I heard this many times when I was a U.S. Marine but I had no idea at the time that it was actually an old Chinese proverb.

See Also:  Blood Sweat and Tears

If training or drill is important to you (especially for military drill and training), 訓練 might be just the thing for a drill master to hang behind his/her desk.

This term is universal in Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja. It can also mean practice or exercise, depending on context.