Monthly Archives: May 2011

Polack jokes

Nationality: Danish
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 20 April 2011
Primary Language: English

Danish

English

18, student

20 April 2011

“Why did the Polack cross the road?

-He couldn’t get his dick out of the chicken”

Her father taught Christina this joke, they share a liking for Polish jokes. Growing up in Denmark, Polish jokes were common for Christina. She learned from her friends, on TV, and at school. They are passed down, and even though they are mean, Christina says, “ya but we have jokes about everyone, my dad always says you gotta keep a thick skin, a firm handshake and a drink in the left hand.

This joke represents blaison populaire because it draws on popular stereotypes and belittles the Polish people. These jokes are learned and passed down making them perfect folklore specimens. Christina isn’t really a racist but she, like many other, enjoy laughing at other country’s foibles and making light-hearted jokes

Tim Perille

18

1027 W. 34th St. Los Angele CA

Proverb-Mexican

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“Cria cuervos y te sacaran los ojos.”

Breed crows and to you they will take out the eyes.

Breed crows and they will take out your eyes.

            Daniel explains that “He [his father] uses this to tell us that we reap what we sow, which is a common saying, I feel.” Specifically, if you do bad things, the products of those deeds will lead to your demise. Daniel was born in the United States and lives in Los Angeles. His parents are from Mexico. He studies occupational therapy at the University of Southern California.

            In this proverb, the crows, considered the product of a bad deed, play an active role in bringing about pain and suffering of their “breeder.”

            Similar to the expression “We reap what we sow,” this proverb involves the process of time as the facilitator of karma. In order for what is sown to be reaped, it must grow and change, as must a crow from infant to adulthood. This implies that bad deeds change before they grow harmful to their propagator.

            The Mexican proverb is different from the expression “We reap what we sow,” because it only warns against the harms of being bad without implying any benefit to doing good. It explains that if you raise something that has the potential to be dangerous, it will hurt you badly when it realizes that potential; however, doing something good may only keep the status quo. There’s no guarantee that raising some other kind of bird would bring you some type of joy, save the ability to keep your eyes.

Proverb-Mexican

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“Al mal paso, darle prisa.”

At the bad step, give it haste.

Give haste to a bad step.

“Something my dad says often is “al mal paso, darle prisa” which translates to something like “give haste to a bad step.” It means that when you’re in a bad situation you should get out of it quickly.”

Daniel was born in the United States and lives in Los Angeles. His parents are from Mexico. He studies occupational therapy at the University of Southern California. His father says this often to his children so that they remember to make decisions that don’t lead to inevitable suffering. When they are in a bad situation, they should get out of it while doing so would be beneficial.

Giving haste to a bad step can be interpreted as minimizing the effect of the bad step on the journey as a whole by giving it less time. For example, if one were to take a step onto an unsure piece of ground that lied in between two stable spots, it would be better to step quickly in the unsure patch of ground in crossing to the other side than to linger there until a problem arises.

Proverb-Chinese

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2011
Primary Language: English

“Break one chopstick at a time.”

            Danny doesn’t know where he first heard this ancient Chinese proverb, but he knows he hears it often in his family, particularly from his parents. He was born in the United States, but his parents were born in China. He is a pre-med student at the University of Southern California He interprets this as meaning “If you want to do things right, do it one step at a time. Say if you want to break five chopsticks as fast as possible. It’s better to break them one at a time than to break them in one piece.”

            Danny and I are on the executive board of a club together, and this proverb came up when discussing how we were going to revive our club after a semester of little activity. We realized we had a lot of work to do to get things running properly, and he mentioned this proverb to suggest that we tackle one obstacle at a time to reach our club’s goals.

            I think this proverb can be used mainly as Danny has described, paralleling the concept that it is bad to “spread yourself too thin,” a piece of advice given often in the college environment to students who take too many classes or engage in too many extracurricular activities. This Chinese proverb captures something more than this expression in that it paints a picture to show why doing too many things at once is a bad thing; namely, attempting to break multiple chopsticks at once will lead to a pile of unbroken chopsticks. A consequence is given for the action that both expressions address.

Folk Game/Prank (Australia)- “Ghosting”

Nationality: Chinese/Australian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Melbourne, Australia
Performance Date: April 25, 2011
Primary Language: English

The goal of “ghosting,” according to the informant, is to follow a person walking on the street for as long as possible without them noticing. “Someone will be walking on the street and someone else will go behind the person and follow them step-by-step.” You can ghost by yourself, take turns with other people, or follow two or more different people at the same time with another friend or friends, and you can mount somebody on your shoulders while you ghost. However it is done, “ghosting” is “about getting into someone’s personal space without them realizing.”

The informant stated that she first learned this folk game/prank from an Australian TV show about two years ago when she was 18 and has known friends who play it. The game is always played outside on the streets, most likely “when you are bored.” “Ghosting,” according to the informant, “is pretty fun but stupid.”

Though the informant stressed “ghosting” as a game instead of a prank, stating that “Australians are pretty cool about it” if they find-out that somebody is ghosting them, I believe that this game can be understood as a prank as well for several reasons. First, the game has a definite group of insiders, or those who are doing the ghosting, as well as a definite group of outsiders—those who are being ghosted, or followed closely while walking. Moreover, the group of insiders, or the participants in the game, are clearly “in the know,” while those who are being followed, the outsiders, are unaware that anything unusual is taking place, and this gap of knowledge is only overcome when a transition into awareness of the game occurs as they find out they are being followed. Finally, it also seems that ghosting might serve as a form, albeit a very mild one, of initiation whereby certain members of the group are selected or perhaps “dared” to engage in the prank or game; in this respect, there could even be “insiders” and “outsiders” within this group itself determined by who has had the courage to participate in the game and possibly incur the wrath of some random pedestrian who they are ghosting if the latter should find out what the ghoster is doing.