Monthly Archives: May 2015

London Cheese: Fergie Spoof

Nationality: Dutch, Lithuanian, Russian, English
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 19-year-old college student who grew up in Chicago, Illinois, then moved out to California where she now attends the University of Southern California. Both her parents are from a Jewish background and her ethnicity is Dutch, Russian, Lithuanian, and English.

This piece of folklore is a very common form of song variation for young children. They will take a popular song and interchange the lyrics with just about anything as long as it follows the same structure as the original song. For example:

Informant’s song:

When I come to the market step aside (oh shit),
All the dieters cant deny (oh shit),
Although it has fat, its just like that (oh shit),
But who the heck cares its cheese (oh shit).

How come every time I come around
My London cheese its gets all green and brown?

Original song by Fergie

When I come to the club, step aside (oh, shit)
Pop the seats, don’t be hating me in the line (oh, shit)
VIP ’cause you know I gotta shine (oh, shit)
I’m Fergie Ferg, and me love you long time (oh, shit)

How come every time you come around
My London, London bridge wanna go down?

Informant: “I just learned it from another one of the kids on the playground. When something like this is brought up at school, especially in elementary school, it catches on really quick. Once you hear it, it gets stuck in your head, next thing you know you are singing it around school and even back at home. In this way, the song gets spread everywhere. The lyrics are kind of ridiculous so it would be easy to see there being multiple variations of this song out there. Also the fact that the original song was such a huge hit really helps the song carry. When people here a widely popular tune, it is much easier to remember.”

I thought that this was piece was very interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, my informant is collecting folklore as well and when she brought this up, it reminded me of how many songs I knew from my childhood that I would sing like this and how many songs I have heard young children sing. Many of them I can still remember every word of. It made me realize how often we use songs for folklore as kids. It is also interesting that for the most part, as kids, we are replacing popular song lyrics, rather than creating our own new songs. I think this most definitely says something for American culture and how much influence popular culture has on children. Also, the amount of exposure children get to popular culture reflects the ways we make these songs.

To See Is To Believe

Nationality: Korean
Age: 24
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: Korean

My informant is a 24-year-old foreign exchange student who was raised in South Korea his whole life.

I asked my informant if he had any proverbs that he could share with me. I was curious to see what I could learn about Korean culture by hearing his proverbs. I was surprised by the first proverb that came to his mind. He told me that this proverb is very popular in Korea and is widely used.

Informant: “The proverb is, “to see is to believe”. This is what it means in Korean, but if you translate to English it means more like, “Watching one time is better than listening 100 times. And it just means that I can tell you something 100 times and you will not understand until I actually show it to you. It also can mean to not trust the words until you see the action”.

Analysis: I thought this was really interesting because the first proverb that he told me was something that I have heard many times in America. This proverb is not limited to just Korea. It was also interesting that the Korean version is close to the English version, if not the exact same, while the translation offers a different reading. The meanings are very close but the translation seems to have a more direct connotation.

Arirang

Nationality: korean
Age: 24
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: Korean

My informant is a 24-year-old foreign exchange student who was raised in South Korea his whole life.

When I first asked him to give me some Korean folklore he quickly jumped to the first thing that he could think of. He told me about a song entitled “Arirang”.

Informant: “Everybody in Korea knows this song. They play it all on the TV and in many places. It is not something that you learn in school or through book, but like it is everywhere. It is almost Korean anthem because everybody knows how to sing it. I learned it when I was really young because you hear it so much. The song is okay, maybe I don’t like it so much because I have heard so many times, but it is like Korean anthem, so I kind of have to like it”

Analysis: This piece is interesting because Korea has a song that is so popular and everyone knows the song, but it is not the official anthem of the country. The song represents pride in one’s country and when it is played it is sung like a national anthem. It is also interesting that my informant is not so fond of the song because he has heard it so many times. He even went on to tell me that the song is so popular that it is registered in UNESCO.

Brick Wall Waterfall

Nationality: polish
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 20-year-old College Student. She has a predominantly Polish heritage.

My informant gave me a children’s song that she remembers very vividly from when she was very young. The song goes as follows:

“Brick wall waterfall (insert person’s name) thinks he/she knows it all,
but you don’t and I do, so poof with that attitude. No peace punch captain crunch I got something that you can’t touch, bing bang choo choo train wind me up and I’ll do my thang, no Reese’s Pieces seven up, mess with me and I will mess you up”

Informant: “Kids would chant this on the playground if someone was being mean or annoying to them. It’s what they would say as like a sassy remark. As someone who got made fun of a lot I would use this quite often because I was too scared to try to be clever so it was my go-to response”

Analysis: This piece is interesting because it shows how children in their youth deal with such instances like being made fun of. In order to combat these mean kids, my informant had learned this “defense song”. A few interesting things about this song are that the song reflects someone who is strong willed. They portray themselves as someone who will “mess you up” if they overstep their boundaries. At the same time there are multiple references to popular culture like seven up and Reese’s Pieces.

Polish Christmas

Nationality: polish
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 20-year-old College Student. She has a predominantly Polish heritage.

I asked my informant if she had any Polish traditions, rituals, or festivals that she could tell me about. She decided to tell me about a Polish tradition that relates to Christmas time. It is normal for people who celebrate Christmas to open their presents Christmas morning, however, in Polish tradition, they skew from this norm and have created their own tradition.

Informant: “Growing up we never opened our Christmas presents on Christmas morning. We opened them Christmas Eve when the first star appeared in the sky because it is Polish tradition. I don’t know if there is any story behind it, I was never told one, but it is something that we do every year. I know that my relatives do the same thing and I have heard of a lot of other Polish people who do the same thing. My grandmother on my mom’s side had to run from Nazis and her whole family had to endure a lot of pain and struggles. I think this part of my family’s heritage is difficult for my mom to talk about. Because of this she does not know a lot of her own heritage but we do this for Christmas as more of an homage to my grandma”

Analysis: This piece is interesting because it gives a new take on a traditional religious custom. Religious customs seem like things that are concrete, but this is not true. There is nowhere in the Bible that states that presents must be opened or that Christmas is a holiday in general where people get presents. If we think of it in this sense, Christmas does allow for a lot of multiplicity and variation depending on where you come from. It is also interesting that although the custom is thought of as Polish, my informant’s family does not do it to celebrate their own Polish ethnicity, more than it is an homage to the a person who was Polish in their family. The tradition celebrates the person more than the ethnicity.