Author Archives: iaffalda@usc.edu

Vietnamese

Nationality: Vietnamese
Age: 26
Occupation: Nail Artist
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: Vietnamese
Language: English

The informant was a woman (referred to as Sarah) at the nail salon who was Vietnamese. She was telling me she was from Vietnam and moved to the United States when she was 13. She lived in Michigan and now is a nail artist in Los Angeles.  She told me about the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, Tet.

 

Sarah: “Tet is the biggest holiday in Vietnam. Everybody celebrates. It is the Lunar New Year. We cook, special food in the days leading up to Tet and everyone is very busy. The preparations are very long. We have something called Mut, which is candy fruit. It is a snack and very sweet.

 

Then the first day of Tet is exciting. Children give greeting to elders- the grandmas you know? And then in exchange, the children get their lucky money. The whole holiday is about luck. We do not even sweep because that would sweep away good luck. The Vietnamese believe the very first visit to the family shows what fortune and luck the year will be. If good things come to your family on Tet, then the whole year will be lucky.”

 

I think Tet is particularly interesting because it is centered a lot on luck and there seem to be very specific traditions and superstitions that ensure you will have good luck. The worldview here would appear to be very future-oriented because the weeks leading up to Tet are focused on making sure everything is in place for a good fortune for the following year.

Vietnamese Pho

Nationality: Vietnamese
Age: 26
Occupation: Nail Artist
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: Vietnamese
Language: English

The informant was a woman (referred to as Sarah) at the nail salon who was Vietnamese. She was telling me she was from Vietnam and moved to the United States when she was 13. She lived in Michigan and now is a nail artist in Los Angeles. Below she describes how to make Pho, a traditional Vietnamese soup.

 

Sarah: “Vietnamese food is very good. Different from American food. No oil and grease.”

 

CI: “What is a traditional Vietnamese dish?”

 

Sarah: “soup, rice, noodles.. all very common.”

 

CI: “Do you like Pho? What type of soup is it?”

 

Sarah: “Yes beef pho is very good. Very common too. We use beef bones and make broth, which is very good for you. Then we put onion, ginger, water, lime, basil and bean sprout. Then add in beef into soup with rice noodle. A lot of people add chili sauce to make it spicy, but I don’t like it spicy. Sometimes we use tofu or even chicken.”

 

Vietnamese food I would say is pretty common in Los Angeles and I love Pho. What she described sounds pretty standard to most pho I have seen.  I am a vegan and I always find that eating Vietnamese food is a really great option, despite the fact that what she described has beef. I think it’s interesting that she immediately said American food was bad because of the oil and grease. The recipe she described seemed fairly simple and to me, that shows that Vietnamese food is clean and fresh with very little processed foods and oils.

Procrastination proverb

Nationality: Irish
Age: 56
Occupation: Lawyer/Screenwriter
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

The informant is my mother who is Irish and she grew up in Buffalo, New York. She always used to tell me this proverb growing up and still says this to me today.

 

“Your tomorrow self will thank your today self.”

 

I have never heard this proverb before and she is really the only person I have ever heard say it. My mother said her Irish grandmother would say it to her growing up. Upon further research I could not find where the proverb originated from, but I kept finding this:

“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.”

 

Which has the same sentiment and was apparently originally said by Sean Patrick Flanery who is also Irish.

If this is an Irish proverb, it tells me that the culture is very efficient and very in the now. I think American world view is very much future oriented and we put things off, but this proverb encourages people to do things now so you don’t have to think about it in the future.

 

For another version of this proverb see “Jane Two,” written by Sean Patrick Flanery.

 

Aboriginal Myth about “Dreamtime.”

Nationality: Australian
Age: 19
Occupation: Social Media
Residence: Australia/ Los Angeles
Primary Language: English

The informant is my friend (referred to as CM) who is Australian. She is 20 years old and grew up in Brisbane Australia and lives in Sydney now and has moved to Byron Bay. I was enquiring about the Aboriginal people and if she knew any stories. Below she discusses an Aboriginal myth about “Dreamtime.”

 

CM: “Yeah the Aboriginal people are so beautiful. They’re not as much in Brisbane or Sydney but in places like New South Wales and Queensland. Yeah growing up my best friend was Aboriginal and her mother would always tell me about the belief system of the ‘Dreamtime.’ She would say that the earth was created by all of these spiritual beings who physically were the land and sea and the animals on the earth. Everything that was in the natural world was kind of like, a representation of the spiritual aspect of the world. Dreaming exists before you’re born and after you die.  Your spirit or I guess dream spirit, exists when you can’t humanly perceive it. A lot of aboriginal myths and stories are just so beautiful, but there is still a lot of racism and hate. They’re the oldest people on Earth. They know so much.”

 

I have been to Australia three times myself now and I think that this is such an interesting concept expressed by the aboriginal people I have found that mainstream Australian culture is deeply rooted in spirituality. Along the streets of Byron Bay and Sydney, there are crystal stores, dream catchers, tarot decks and so many “spiritual” healing objects that I find it so surprising that the aboriginals are actually treated so horribly and disregarded. So much of the Australian spirituality culture is rooted in this idea of the Dreamtime, and I definitely see that in all of my Australian friends.

Persian New Year

Nationality: Persian
Age: 50-60
Occupation: Uber driver
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English

The informant was an uber driver, Amir I had who was Persian. I was taking an uber and it was the day before Persian New Year, which I did not know until he mentioned it. It was an extremely sunny and beautiful day and while we were making small talk about the weather he started talking about the Persian New Year. Below is our conversation where he tells me about the importance of the blooming flowers and of Persian New Year traditions.

 

Amir: “No one wants to work today- it is spring.”

 

CI: “Yes, the weather is so beautiful!”

 

Amir: “Yes and in my community, it is the New Year.”

 

CI: “Oh really? What community?”

 

Amir: “I am Persian. Tomorrow is the Persian new year. As you can see the flowers growing on the side of the road show new life.”

 

CI: “Wow, so what do you do for Persian New Year?”

 

Amir: “Well first, no one work. Tomorrow is the big celebration. Family and friends come over and we celebrate. We have a table set for everyone.”

 

CI: “Really? What types of food do you eat?”

 

Amir: “We eat at a restaurant, but we set out table to show spring has come. We put the lentils out to show rebirth and we put the dried fruit to show love and apple and vinegar and other things.”

CI: “Okay so you set the table with items but you don’t eat them?”

Amir: “No we go out to eat at Persian restaurant and have kebab and meat”

This was such a great interaction and I also don’t know if it would have occurred if it hadn’t been nice weather outside. It seems as if the celebration of Persian new year is greatly linked to the rebirth with spring and therefore the weather is a huge part of the day. I wondered if the weather was not as nice out if the holiday would be the same. Small talk about weather can inform people about very interesting traditions!