Author Archives: Maria Gao

Metaphor – Germany

German:

Ach, Die Huehnerleiter!

Pronunciation:

Ah-ch, dee hiu nyah lai ta

Literal meaning:

Oh! The chicken ladder!

During his residence in Germany, the informant heard this phrase many times from his host mother in Hanover. She claimed that it’s an old German phrase she learned from her mother. It is often used in situations where we would use a slightly more inappropriate phrase along the lines of “oh shoot!”

The informant thinks that the metaphor might have originated from the construction of old barns where chickens were stacked in various compartments up against a wall. The chicken ladder refers to the ladder used to climb up to get to the chickens in the top shelves. It is an annoying task because as one makes one’s way up the ladder, one would have to overcome the formidable task of avoiding chicken droppings. Literally, the metaphor refers to the unfortunate disposition of being in a ‘poopy’ situation.

This metaphor is very similar to one that we often use. Again, slightly inappropriate, we often hear people say, “oh you’re in deep sh*t now.” Except, the German version of “Oh chicken ladder!” provides much more physical imagery making the phrase more comical than the crude one we hear.

Etiquette – Germany

Prost!

Cheers!

“When I first got to Germany and was 16 and was drinking beer because the legal alcohol drinking age is 16, people did this cheers thing before drinking. I thought it was just like what I’ve seen before in America and just clanked the glass and said ‘Prost’ back at my friends. Immediately after, they all commented on the fact that I did not look at them in the eyes and told me that I should always look people in the eyes when Prosting. Though they did not explain why, I imagine it was just a cultural tradition/etiquette thing. After that incident, I took my friends’ advice and did that every single time afterwards.  I realized everyone did really look at you in the eyes when Prosting and assumed that was probably a really important thing to do in Germany.”

The informant thinks it’s rather different from what we do here in the states in that it shows a more direct connection with one’s friends while drinking. It probably also emphasizes the way German people interact. Since looking away or indirectly at one’s eyes may indicate deceit or suspicion, it would only make sense that when toasting with friends, the least one can do is to make some eye contact.

Paradigmatically, looking at German culture as a whole, I think it makes a lot of sense that there is a lot of importance placed on drinking etiquette. Personally, I also find the eye contact fascinating because some cultures might actually take offense to that. While in Germany, toasting and looking directly at someone might signify friendship and honesty, perhaps in other cultures it might be considered rude to stare.

Folk Speech – Germany

German:

Ich glaube mein Affe humpelt.

Pronunciation:

Iche glao beh mine ahfa hoom pilt.

Literal translation:

I believe my monkey is hobbling.

Metaphoric meaning:

Whatever you said is completely proposterous.

The informant heard this phrase often in Germany where he lived with a host family for a couple of years. His host mother spoke of a lot of phrases that only her generation would use and perhaps understand. The informant found it incredibly amusing the first time he heard it and wondered what hobbling monkeys had to do with anything.

My analysis would be, symbolically speaking, monkeys usually represent craziness, fun and goofiness. In this case, the hobbling monkey refers to a proposterous situation, much like saying “The pigs will fly”. As if monkeys aren’t enough, toss in hobbling monkeys and one would have an imagery with total displacement. Displacement is what makes a lot of jokes work. Much like the kangaroo in a bar example, there’s just something humorousely random about hobbling monkeys. So much so that it’s proposterous, exactly as the phrase implies.

Etiquette – China

“When using chopsticks, one must never stick them in one’s bowl or food upright, so that it is perpendicular to the table. This is considered extremely disrespectful.”

I was born in China and imimigrated to the United States with my family when I was in second grade. I’ve been living in the states ever since and while I am ‘American’ in many aspects, I still retain many traditions and cultural ties which makes me uniquely Chinese-American.

As is true with most Asian cultures, respect, honor and ‘saving of face’ is closely associated with etiquette. There are etiquettes for almost everything, a ‘proper’ way to do this and that and table manners are no exception.  One particular table blasphemy I remember from childhood concerns chopstick placement.

There’s a reason why when one walks into chinese restaurants chopsticks are laid flat on the table. In the case of more ‘upscale’ Chinese dining, there are even chopstick stands where one can place their chopsticks so that the tips are slightly elevated from the table. It is considered disrespectful and wrong to stick chopsticks upright in one’s food or rice because this resembles what people would do with incense in front of graves to honor the dead.

Many Asian cultures burn incense at temples as a way to pay respect to the Gods. It is also used to honor the dead. Usually, one would take a burning incense between both palms, bow three times in front of whatever entity, be it a god or the recently deceased, then place the incense upright in a soft mount in front of either a temple, or a grave. Because the notion of sticking chopsticks upright in a ricebowl is so much like the incense procedure, that is why it is frowned upon. In fact, I’ve also heard of cases where people would literally stick chopsticks upright in food to leave food for the dead, so that the spirit can come back and use the chopsticks to eat.

Besides being disrespectful, since it’s almost like playing with food in western cultures, it is outright bad in the sense that it is morbid and associated with death. Especially if one’s dinner host is superstitious, it is best not to do anything crazy with one’s chopsticks.

Ghost Story – China

Ming dynasty in a village somewhere lived a despicable man. All the villagers despised him because of his wrong doings. One night, he came down with a sickness he caught from one of the dead bodies he was stealing from. As he was about to die because no one would help him, an old doctor kindly took him in and treated him back to health in hopes of him starting a new life to be a better person. However, he did not learn his lesson and kept stealing. The villagers eventually beat him out of the village and threw him in the forest. A couple days later, he came back to the village begging for help but this time none would help him. Again, he was beaten, this time tied up to a tree. He ultimately died on that tree but his body went missing soon after. A couple months later, he came back as a ?? (Jiang Shi/Zombie) and killed off the whole village by biting them, converting them to zombies as well.

Jiang Shi literally means rigid corpse. It is one of the more popularized ‘monster’ figures in China. Much like ‘Frankenstein’ there have been numerous depictions of Jiang Shi in books, movies, plays and other media. I first heard of Jiang Shi from an older friend of mine when I was still in elementary school. I also remember watching horror movies about it and being scared to death.

Now that I think about it, there is definitely a correlation between Jiang Shi and its western brother, zombies. They are both evil walking corpses with cannibalistic tendencies out to kill and convert others to increase in numbers. Jiang Shi is also similar to vampires because they also drink blood. In fact, their Achilles’ heel is some sort of a Chinese prayer tag, much like the cross and garlic to the vampires. Does this suggest that zombies are a prevalent theme in every culture? Much like tales about the sun, the stars and the moon. Or is this an example of polygenesis? We may never know but one thing for sure is that monsters and ghost stories are a huge part of folklore regardless of cultural boundaries.