Category Archives: folk metaphor

Que Fresa!

Context

PC is my roommate at USC. Her mother is Spanish and her father is Mexican. They both immigrated to the United States when they were young adults and work to incorporate both cultures in addition to American culture. She grew up in the suburbs of Miami and now lives in Dallas, Texas. 

Text

PC: Growing up in the suburbs my whole life I feel like I always walked the line between being Latina and being white washed. And since my mom is Spanish I was different than my cousins in Mexico too. So I would always go visit my family in Mexico and they would always say “Que fresa!” whenever I did something they considered more American or stuck up.

DO (Interviewer): I know that in English that translates to “what strawberry”, could you explain that a little bit more?

PC: Yeah so basically it’s like a term used to describe kids who were like richer Hispanic kids who have a certain personality. My family uses it as a joke but sometimes it’s used as an insult that basically means spoiled rich girls. 

DO: Interesting. I know that your parents are both Mexican and Spanish, is it more prevalent to use in one culture over another or is it used pretty commonly in both?

PC: I think I’ve heard it more used by my dad’s family. It might be just a common term for Hispanic people but I think it’s more of Mexican slang. It’s sort of like the equivalent to people’s ideas of a valley girl. So saying “like” a lot, mixing spanish and english, when things are said more like a question than a statement. Things like that. 

Analysis

This metaphor is commonly used in Mexican culture and serves as a separator of social status. This phrase is used by lower to middle-class individuals to poke fun at the wealthier class. Oftentimes in society, it is those of the wealthier class that may be making fun of those who don’t have the same social status, so through this term, we see the reversal of that. The direct translation may not make sense to someone, not in this culture so this phrase shows the complexity of lore not in our native languages and cultures. To outsiders looking in it may make no sense, but to those in this culture, it is a common term.  

The Earth is round

NM told me a phrase his mother would say when someone takes a wrong turn in the car. He described his mother a “casual, very laid back, person.”

I forget the actual phrase, but basically it’s like “The Earth is round, we’ll get there eventually”

-NM

This saying could be a response to contemporary American culture. In the United States, there much respect given towards working people. Leisure and relaxation are often viewed as laziness, which can lead to people becoming upset when unnecessary time is taken to complete a task. In contrast to this, NM’s mother takes a more laid-back approach, choosing to accept the extra time taken in stride and stay content with the way things happen.

Phrase: “A Senior is Half a Teacher”

Text: “一个学长，半个老师”
Pinyin (Simplified): yi ge xue zhang, ban ge lao shi
Translation: One senior is half a teacher.

Context:
N is a junior at USC, majoring in Communications. N is an international student from China, Anhui Province. When N was a high school student, he was in a soccer team on campus which is the community he refers to in this phrase.
N: “There’s this sort of tradition, more like a phrase. The phrase is ‘一个学长，半个老师’ (yi ge xue zhang, ban ge lao shi). It’s like, ‘a senior is equal half a teacher, or half a coach. It’s part of a tradition in my soccer team when a junior would just, like, make the freshmen do whatever they want them to do. That’s just a tradition, I guess.”
Is that like a criticism of experience?
N: “I think it’s because in China, the people who go to sports, they don’t need to have really good grades. They just go to high school or college with their sports, they just go to practice. They’re more like a street gang, like a clique. So, because they’re bad, they want to control the people who are new.”

Interpretation:
This phrase is circulated throughout the students. It isn’t a proverb which relays some form of wisdom or life lesson to the listener and it is also not a joke, as there is no humor behind the reality of the statement. It observes a complex power dynamic and metaphorically summarizes it in a concise way, likely as a call to how unfair such a hierarchy is and an acknowledge about the inevitability of its insistence in the school system. It’s a stereotype of athletes at this school widely known and accepted by the students, a blason populaire of this community of soccer players. Such speech is usually created by an external audience, the students who are not in the soccer team themselves but are familiar with it. When asked why the juniors bully the lower classmen, the answer could be this phrase. It is a lighthearted observation of the corruption and power play at school and its unfair treatment of the students, so much so that N associates this phrase with his specific team. Simultaneously, it encourages no revolt against such a system, already knowing full well the impossibility of change that could come from speaking up. This acceptance adds to the stereotype, almost perpetuating its truth.

“Hen-pecked”

1. Text (folk metaphor)

“Hen-pecked”

2. Context 

My informant heard this phrase often from her grandmother. They were born and raised in the south, Louisiana specifically, before moving to Texas. She recalls an old saying that states that you don’t let your boyfriend or husband carry your purse for that mean he’s “hen-pecked.” She further elaborated on how hen-pecked often referred to when a man “is not the head of household”, but the woman is and “as a woman, you have taken his power from him.” She heard this when she was a child growing up as a black woman in the south during the 80s. 

3. Analysis/YOUR interpretation

From my understanding of the phrase, it seems to be rooted in southern misogynistic beliefs. My informant was raised in a rural Texan community after her family moved from Louisiana. As someone who was born and also raised in Texas, I am aware of the stereotypes, traditions, and customs commonly associated. Being the head of the household typically entails the male figure is seen as the provider, masculine, and generally opposite of many stereotypical feminine traits associated with the women. So when a man holds his wife’s purse, these shared belief systems may consciously or subconsciously take hold resulting in narrow-minded beliefs. During the time my informant recalls these ideologies, hegemonic masculinity in the black community was apparent. Hegemonic masculinity at its core refers to the belief that men’s position in society remains dominant. This is often seen as the social pressures men have faced of being expected to depict a perfect “expression” of masculinity. The term hen-pecked means not seen as masculine but seen as subservient to one’s wife and therefore not upholding the hegemonic masculine standards. This is an oikotype of the original meaning. Hen-pecked originally came from the way hens are constantly pecking at the ground for food and the way a wife or girlfriend may nag at her significant other resulting in the man complying with the wife. It seems the term became used more generally not only referring to the woman pecking/nagging their partner, but anything done by the man which could be seen as subservient to women.

Bottom of my shoes

Text:

“I will write your name on the bottom of my old shoes” (Σε γράφω στα παλιά μου τα παπούτσια)

Context:

EF is an eight-two-year-old woman who is like a surrogate grandma to me. She lives in Northridge, CA., but grew up in a small Greek village called Corfu; she remains very connected to her Greek heritage and culture. From her cooking to her proverbial warnings, she is filled with unique folklore that she loves to share. I facetimed EF and asked her to give me staple proverbs or sayings from her small village. She decided to share this proverb because it stood out in her mind.

EF- When a guy is very angry at another guy, he can say “I will write you on the bottom of my shoe.” That’s when they want nothing to do with each other. 

Interviewer- Can you remember a time when you heard someone say this?

EF- (in a serious tone) Yes! My ex-husband screamed it at my brother (bursts out laughing).

After she finished chuckling, she explained that it is a very serious insult but mostly exchanged between men.

Analysis:

Since the informant did not know when she heard this proverb, that pointed to a possible historical origin. I researched the phrase and found one explanation. According to the article, this insult dates back to a practice by a Babylonian king when firing the lords. The king would write the unlucky lord’s name on the bottom of a pair of old shoes and send them to him. This represented not only the lord’s loss of title but also that he meant nothing to the king anymore (Kontolemos, 2022). It is understandable why this is perceived as a very serious statement that is only used in intense arguments. The fact that this folk speech is still widely used in Greece illustrates how important history and tradition is in Greek culture. Beyond the Babylonian explanation, one could interpret this phrase as the person is so worthless that they belong under my shoe like trash. The theatrical nature of writing a person’s name on old shoes represents an ongoing insult because the name will never come off the shoes, just as the person who wronged you will never mean anything to you again.

Kontolemos, A. (2022, May 12). 11 greek expressions you should know. Mental Floss. Retrieved February 23, 2023, from https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/greek-phrases