Is '櫓三年に棹八年' a playful saying?


In [one
episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iN2N8KgAw4&ab_channel=MakotoAmakawa)
of _Gabriel Dropout_ , after the boss of the cafe comforted her that her
Japanese will get fluent, Gabriel said, '櫓三年に棹八年'. Then, the background color
of the scene shot changes to black.

That sentence seems to be a funny one in that context. Why? Is '櫓三年に棹八年' a
playful saying?

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iLOPV.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iLOPV.png)
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sO9nK.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sO9nK.png)




This is funny simply because 櫓三年に棹八年 is an extremely rare proverb known to
only a few Japanese speakers. An avid learner may know
[桃栗三年柿八年](https://jisho.org/word/%E6%A1%83%E6%A0%97%E4%B8%89%E5%B9%B4%E6%9F%BF%E5%85%AB%E5%B9%B4),
which is a much more common equivalent of this proverb. However, if she knows
櫓三年に棹八年, it means either that her vocabulary level is beyond that of most
native Japanese speakers, or that she learned Japanese from some unusual
material.




This is funny simply because 櫓三年に棹八年 is an extremely rare proverb known to
only a few Japanese speakers. An avid learner may know
[桃栗三年柿八年](https://jisho.org/word/%E6%A1%83%E6%A0%97%E4%B8%89%E5%B9%B4%E6%9F%BF%E5%85%AB%E5%B9%B4),
which is a much more common equivalent of this proverb. However, if she knows
櫓三年に棹八年, it means either that her vocabulary level is beyond that of most
native Japanese speakers, or that she learned Japanese from some unusual
material.

