Author Archives: Ashley Avery

Korean- Folk Belief

Nationality: Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 4, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

” Whenever your ear itches, it means that someone is gossiping about you behind your back”

My informant has no idea where or when she first heard this folk belief. She thinks its just something people who are raised in Korea have all heard at some point similar to how people raised in America know that finding a penny is good luck. She doesn’t know how it originated or why people say it. She said, “If your ear itches a lot then it means people are always talking about you or at least one person is always talking about you” Recently my informant’s mother always jokes with her about her ear itching, meaning that some boy is talking about her.

I had never heard this folk belief before, but I found examples of it in Korean illustrated novels or comics known as manhwa. In several different stories a character who is being talked about in a particular scene will be shown scratching their ear or mentioning that their ear itches in the following scene.

Annotation: In the story Hot Blooded Woman by Hwang Mi Ri, the main character’s simple mindedness and violent tendencies are often discussed behind her back. So she is often seen scratching her ear.

Hwang, M.R. (2000). Hot blooded woman.

Folk Gesture

Nationality: African American
Age: 14
Occupation: High School Student
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2011
Primary Language: English

“That deserves a neck”

My informant told me that this is a popular gesture that the male students at his high school often engage in. Whenever a boy says something that is glaringly obvious or has a “dumb moment” their friends will say “that deserves a neck” and then hit the back of the boy’s neck. My informant doesn’t know why the guys do it or how it started. But he does know that it is considered funny and that everyone laughs whenever someone says “that deserves a neck and then slaps the back of their friends neck”. My informant doesn’t think that someone would do the “neck hitting thing” to someone who isn’t a friend. He’s also not sure if this gesture is common at other high schools or if it is just localized to his high school in the Fresno Unified School District.

I had never seen this gesture performed before, but from my informant’s description it seems like a form of bonding. It is something that only males have been observed doing and they only do it with other males that they are close to. My informant likened the behavior as being similar to “one’s mother smacking the back of their head for being stupid”, he thinks that it might be a related gesture. If that is true then it might mean that the boys who engage in this behavior with their friends find it comforting because it is associated with something their parents might have done.

Funny Name Legend

Nationality: African American
Age: 14
Occupation: High School Student
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: March 28, 2011
Primary Language: English

“There was a woman that wanted to name her twin daughters, Vagina and Erotica.  And apparently there are two people in America named ESPN after the sports channel.”

The informant said that he heard this story from a classmate at his high school a few months ago in December. He found the story shocking at first, then incredible and funny. He isn’t sure if he believes if it is actually true. The topic came up amongst his classmates because they heard that in some other countries parents aren’t allowed to name their infants whatever they want and have to select a name off of a list. The informant and his friends found this strange in comparison to the American culture they grew up in and so someone told this story. He thinks it shows that maybe people can’t be trusted to name their children whatever they want with practically no restrictions.

This legend is probably a variation of the popular “Funny Name” legend that has been circulating in the US at least since the early 1900s. The earlier variations of this legend usually describe the woman in the story as a black woman. It was probably repeated to show that black people weren’t even smart enough to give their children “sensible names” and just named them whatever sounded good. This legend reflected the racial prejudice that was socially acceptable in the culture of America in the early 1900. While there are still a fair amount of stories circulating about the strange names that African American parents give their children, in this version that my informant heard, the race of the woman was either left out (because the informant is African American and might have taken offense) or the race of the woman is no longer relevant in today’s culture.

There have been many accounts in the media about the unusual names that people give their children and these people are from many different racial backgrounds. People find these “unusual name” stories quite entertaining. A few years ago there was a news story about a Chinese couple that wanted to name their son @ after the @ symbol (CNN.com) and currently there is a lot of talk over a young man who named his child, Facebook after the social networking website (NPR radio broadcast).   Perhaps now people’s opinion has moved from one race not being intelligent enough to do something as simple as naming a child to what my informant said, which is that maybe some people either can’t be trusted with or that they purposely abuse the freedom they have.

Annotation: This legend does have some truth to it though according to this article written on ESPN’s official website. There at least three people with the name ESPN.

Texas toddler at least the third named espn. (2004, June 26). ESPN, Retrieved from http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=1829996

Children’s Joke

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 9
Occupation: Elementary School Student
Residence: Clovis, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2011
Primary Language: English

There was a little kid who took a shower together with his parents. When they were in the shower the little kid looks up and see his mothers chest. So he asks, “Mommy what are those?” and she says “Oh those are my flashlights” and then the little kid looks down a sees his mother’s…uh… you know down there and asks her “Mommy what is that?” and she says “Oh that’s my barn”. Then the little kid turns to his father and sees his…you know and asks him “Daddy what is that?” and his Dad says “Oh that’s my horse”. So after their shower the little kid wants to sleep in bed with his parents for the night and they say “Okay”. So the little kid is in bed with them and he goes to sleep, but he hears some noise so he wakes up and shouts ” Hey Mommy, turn your flashlights on! The horse just went in the barn!”

My informant said that she first heard this joke when she was in 1st or 2nd grade. All of the kids at her school knew this joke and they would all tell it over and over again.  She remembers thinking it was so funny back when she first heard it, now it only makes her giggle a little. She says that she didn’t really get what the joke was referring to until recently, but thought it was funny before because the little kid in the story didn’t know what certain body parts were called and referred to them as those actual objects. “Like when he tells his mother to ‘turn her flashlights on’, you obviously can’t turn your boobies on like flashlights”. My informant also noted that because the joke involved a persons’ “private parts” it could not be repeated in front of adults. “Because adults usually get mad, when you tell jokes like that. So we would only tell it to other kids”

I believe that this joke, like many other obscene children’s jokes, are funny for different reasons to different subgroups within the folk group of children. Younger children find the joke funny because of the little kid’s ignorance and his use of the words to describe what he sees. Older children find this joke funny because they get what the joke is implying, which is sexual intercourse.  The older children also find it funny that when they repeat this joke to younger children the younger children don’t really get it and are laughing for the wrong reason.

Unconventional Pregnancy- Folk Belief

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: March 14, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

A girl can get pregnant from swimming in water that has been ejaculated into.

 A woman can become pregnant from sitting on a toilet seat with ejaculate on it.

You can get an STD from a public restroom’s toilet.

My informant heard all of these unconventional pregnancy/sexs methods when she was in high school. She recalls being a bit skeptical about them back then when she was a 14 year old high school freshmen, but now she finds them absurd and laughable. She thinks that people continue to tell these folk beliefs is because the world is seen as a dirty place. As girls grow from children into young women they feel particularly vulernable to the world they can no longer be shielded from by their parents. Even in places that should be harmless, like a hotel swimming pool or your neighbor’s toilet can be dangerous because you never know who using it before you and what they were doing there. A thought like that can be scary and yet there is little that can be done about it, besides making sure to cover the toilet seat and to never go swimming.

I agree with what my informant said, but I also think there might another reason that these folk beliefs are spread, especially among young teenagers. I think these beliefs can act as a scapegoat for people’s sexual exploits. If a young woman who is believed to be a virgin by her family and friends becomes pregnant, the story goes from being condemning to tragic if she was impregnated by some force outside of her control. If she was engaging in a harmless and innocent activity, such as using the bathroom or going for a swim, when she became pregnant she can’t really be blamed for what has happened. Similarly to those who contract STDs from public restrooms again it alleviates blame of any frowned upon sexual activity.

Annotation: The folk belief that swimming in a pool of water that has been ejaculated into was used as a basis for a lawsuit in 2009. A woman sued a hotel in Egypt after claiming that her 13 year old daughter become pregnant from swimming in their swimming pool.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Doyle, H. (2009, July 09). Teen pregnant after ‘swimming in pool’. The Sun, Retrieved from http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2525921/Teen-pregnant-after-swimming-in-pool.html