Author Archives: Luka Karaman

Bez muke nema nauke

Nationality: Croatian
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Performance Date: 4/23/2017
Primary Language: Croatian
Language: English

Bez muke nema nauke

Informant: MK was born in New York, but raised in Dubrovnik, Croatia. He is a senior in high school. He has an older brother, and a younger sister. While growing up our grandparents would teach us valuable life lessons and most of the time they would use a proverb in doing so. Proverbs are a huge part of our family’s culture.

 

MK heard this proverb multiple times weather it was from a family member, school teacher or even his water polo coach.

 

“Bez muke nema nauke” when translated literally means “Without suffering, there is no learning.” The English equivalent is: No pain, no gain.

 

Have you ever heard of this proverb?

 

“Of course I have, it is a common saying in our community.”

 

Does it have any meaning to you?

 

“The same it means to anyone else that lives in my community. It teaches people a lesson. It’s a valuable lesson that I ended up learning the hard way.”

 

This proverb can be used in multiple occasions in variety of fields. For an example it is most commonly used in sports and schools. In sports without pain, suffering and sacrifice there is no gain, improvement. In schools, it is said when students complain about studying; without spending hours behind a book, one wont learn

Cabbage medicine

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 3/17/2017
Primary Language: English

Cabbage medicine

 

Informant: TF was born and raised in Villa Park, California. His father works in commercial real estate and his mother working as a manager for Choc Hospital. He has one older brother, a twin sister, and one younger brother. TF is half Lebanese and strongly connected to his Lebanese background. He is a first year student at USC. The informant heard this type of medicine from his grandmother who used this kind of medicine all the time when she was a child.

 

In the beginning of this semester a friend injured his knee. He fell on it while carrying heavy weight. The next day he came to practice and his knee was all swollen. He told us what happened and than my informant TF suggested to put cabbage on it. Both my friend and I were confused thinking he must be messing with us, but then he explained:

 

“Cabbage is used to reduce the swelling. If you hit or injure yourself, you can remove the swelling and bruises with the help of this old folk medicine. Just wrap around two cabbage leaves onto the beaten spot.”

 

This folk medicine sounded really strange. Putting a vegetable on your swollen knee will make the swelling go away sounds ridiculous at first, but if the cabbage leaves are able to absorb the fluids it would reduce the swelling and in that case it makes perfect sense. Of course our friend didn’t try this method, but it is an interesting method and if it happens again I would like to try it and see if it works.

Driving rule in Jamaica

Nationality: Croatian, American
Age: 49
Occupation: water polo referee
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/2017
Primary Language: Croatian
Language: English

TK is my dad. Before moving to the United States his previous job required him to travel a lot. Luckily he enjoys traveling.

 

This past winter break the whole family gathered in New York and for New Years went on a family vacation to Jamaica. On the flight my dad and uncle shared their stories of their previous visits to Jamaica. On TK’s last visit to Jamaica he was in Kingston and one of the taxi drivers told his an interesting saying about driving in Jamaica.

 

“He told me that when it comes to driving in Jamaica there is one major rule you need to know if you plan on driving. “The left side is the right side, and the right side is suicide.””

 

As in the UK, traffic on Jamaica travels on the left in right hand drive vehicles. So if you drove on the right side, which is the wrong side haha, you will most likely have a car crash; thus being the suicide side. When we landed in Montego Bay the driver to the hotel resort told us the same saying. So obviously it is a popular saying there and how wouldn’t it be it rhymes, it’s catchy, funny and true.

DUBROVNIK GREEN MENESTRA

Nationality: Croatian
Age: 68
Occupation: retired
Residence: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Performance Date: 4/17/2017
Primary Language: Croatian
Language: english

NK is my grandmother who was born and raised in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Being a local she knows a lot about the city and its folklore. She knows a lot about the local and traditional cuisine. The Green Menestra is another gastronomic specialty from the list of traditional, indigenous dishes of the Dubrovnik region.

 

“There are three kinds of green menestra (cabbage and smoked meat stew).

Green Menestra ingredients are:

– Dalmatian prosciutto

– smoked lamb

– bacon (home-smoked)

– sausages (home-made)

– potatoes

– kale

– cabbage (white,head)

– cabbage (green-raštanj)

– olive oil

– salt

-Various kinds of smoked pork can be used to prepare green menestra, and ingredients can be added or changed but this is the most common recipe.”

 

How do you make zelena menestra?

“First you want to wash the prosciutto (koljenica) and the smoked lamb in warm water and scrap if needed (smoked surface). Put in hand-hot water and cook. After a set time, add and cook the sausages and bacon. After a while you want to remove the softer pieces of cooked meat so they remain intact. While that’s going on wash the green cabbage (raštanj), and the washed kale and head of white cabbage are cut in thick pieces. Each vegetable is blanched for a short time, removed and drained. The potatoes are cleaned, washed, cut in four and cooked. When the stock boils, add olive oil, and then add all the blanched vegetables. Remove the cooked meat from the bones, and cut into serving pieces. Place the cut meat over the vegetables and cook all together for a short while on low heat. Remove from heat and keep covered for one half hour. Pile up the vegetables in a serving dish, encircle with all the meat. It should be served like this; the vegetables together with a portion of each variety of meat. Stock is poured over the dish prior to serving.”

 

 

In the original recipe, the vegetables do not have to be blanched, but then the vegetables might not have the nice green color of blanched vegetables. Also, some of the bitterness found in the vegetables disappears with blanching. The green menestra is usually prepared for a large group of people. If you never had it might taste different and unusual but it is very delicious. This specific delicacy has been in my family for generations and is a part of our culture. Nowhere in the world will you find something like this.

 

 

Perica i roda (Perica and the stork)

Nationality: Croatian, American
Age: 49
Occupation: water polo referee
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 14/9/2017
Primary Language: Croatian
Language: English

TK is my dad and he likes jokes. It was a part of his culture growing up and he always likes to have a nice laugh.

 

Every summer we my family and I would go to Iž for our vacation. Iž is an island in Croatia. Usually to pass time in the car on our way there we play games, tell jokes and on one of those rides he told us this one.

 

Perica and his mom are on their way to the zoo. While in the car Perica asks:

“Mama, will we see the stork in the zoo?”

His mom answers:

“Of course Perice.”

All happy and with a smile on his face Periсa replies:

“Great! I wonder if he will recognize me!”

 

This joke is funny because of the fact that storks are associated with delivering babies. Many children get siblings before they are ready for “The Talk” but their curious nature means parents have to tell them something. Because of their long history associated with babies and family, storks are an easy story to tell kids sometimes. Perica wondering will the stork recognize him because he is all grown up now and not a baby anymore as when the stork supposedly delivered him to his parents. I like this joke because it is appropriate for all generations and proves that it doesn’t have to have offensive language or be insulting to be funny.