Author Archives: Sam Choi

Proverb

Nationality: Irish, Scottish
Occupation: Reverend
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“Cross Your Fingers”

Origins

Reverend Kenney heard this proverb from her mother and other women near her mother’s age as she was growing up (first at around the age of 6).

Quoted from Reverend Kenney

”There’s two different stories for the same phrase while I was growing up. I heard the first when I was 6, from my mother and other adults I knew, mostly women who were near her age. Whenever you hoped that something would happen, the women would say “cross your fingers that ____”, and the person being told this would say “I’ll cross my fingers for you” “

“I don’t remember hearing it from people other than from women her age. But, I also grew up hearing a second phrase. I heard from kids my own age, when I was 7 or 8, that whenever you are going to tell a lie, that if you cross your fingers behind your back and tell the lie, nobody will catch you.”

“Last time I saw that was a couple of weeks ago. I have a grandson who’s in elementary schools. I was wondering what one of his hands was doing behind his back. I asked him and his face got all red. He said “I have my fingers crossed”. When I asked why he replied, “Well, because I’m telling you a lie and I don’t want you to find out.” “

Collector’s Comments

During elementary school, I heard from various classmates that you cross your fingers behind your back to tell a lie. However, we did not really acknowledge that you would not be caught. The crossing of fingers simply meant to us that someone was telling a blatant lie or joking with you if they had the fingers crossed behind their back.

In addition, I never really heard of the other interpretation of this proverb that Reverend Kenney heard from her mother. It was only on television shows that involve luck (such as Wheel of Fortune) that I would see people cross their fingers that they would have good fortune.

Contemporary Legend – Dallas, Texas

Nationality: Korean
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, TX
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, French

1st Variation: “Mountain Dew kills your sperm”

2nd Variation: “Mountain Dew makes your penis shrink”

Origins

I first remember hearing this legend sometime during middle school in a suburb of Dallas, TX.

Collector’s comments

I decided to include this legend to add on to the several other legends about soft drinks in this particular folklore collection. Each time I heard this legend, I had the same sentiments as I did when I heard about Dr. Pepper being made with prune juice. As a rational, analytical person I assumed that kids in the Dallas area would likely hear and spread rumors such as this because Mountain Dew (produced by PepsiCo) primarily runs their operations exclusively in areas such as New York and New Jersey. Since Dr. Pepper / 7up has a near monopoly of many business in the Dallas area, I thought it was likely that Dr. Pepper would attempt to spread rumors about its competitors (much like Coca-Cola creating a legend about Dr. Pepper in California).

As it turns out, Mountain Dew is said to have some kind of adverse effect upon a male’s genitals (in every variation of this legend). This is often due to an ingredient called “Yellow 5” in Mountain Dew. My source completely refutes the claims of this legend and went a step further, mentioning that quite a lot of common products use the ingredient Yellow 5 yet nothing is said about the adverse effects that those products may have. In short, it was concluded that Yellow 5 is harmless and does not have any known harmful effects upon humans, despite this ingredient being under scrutiny since the early 1900’s.

Annotation: This legend and facts disproving it can be found at http://www.snopes.com/medical/potables/mountaindew.asp

Date of access: April 24, 2007

Proverb – French

Nationality: Korean
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, TX
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, French

English: “It is a wise man who lives with money in the bank, it is a fool who dies that way.”

French: “C’est un homme sage qui vit avec de l’argent à la banque, il est un imbécile qui meurt de cette façon.”

Origins

I heard this proverb in my last year of AP French during high school (in Dallas,

TX). I remember this proverb because my teacher forced the class to memorize French proverbs for an end of the year quiz.

Collector’s comments

I thought this proverb said quite a lot about the attitudes of the French people. Beginning my studies of French in middle school, I had only a vague idea of what French culture was like. All I knew were a bunch of common French stereotypes (as shown in American media).

In my later years of high school French, I realized that the French are quite different from what I originally envisioned. I thought that the French were likely to be heavily focused on money, work, etc. much like the United States and most of western Europe. What I discovered was that quite a lot of French people put emphasis on being able to have time for recreation and for enjoying life, instead of working as much as possible to further their material wealth.

What the quote seems to illustrate about the French is that many of them believe you just need to have enough money to enjoy life, while still actually being alive. The quote suggests that they believe it is foolish to horde up vast amounts of wealth and to never be able to enjoy it.

Folktale – Korean

Nationality: Korean
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, TX
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

???? (original title)

Origins

Suzan first heard this folktale from her parents during elementary school in Korea (the version she originally heard was somewhat different).

Quoted from Suzan

“This is the “Korean Cinderella Story.” There was a daughter ??(in English, kong-jwi) born between a couple after 10 years, but the mother dies and the father decides to re-marry. The new wife brings her own daughter ?? (in English, pat-jwi) and only adores her. ?? is made to work like a servant and when some judge (of the village I think…) proposes to her, the new mother tricks her and ?? falls into a well and dies. Then ?? acts like the other daughter (??). However, ?? is reborn in a lotus flower and goes to tell the judge what happened. The judge drained the well and found ??’s corpse and she became alive again. The judge orders ?? to be killed and her corpse sent to her mother, her mother dies of heart attack upon receiving her daughter’s corpse….”
”I think there’s supposed to a happier ending to this story…. I don’t remember it being this gruesome when I read it back in elementary school…”
Collector’s comments

As Suzan noted, the folktale has multiple endings and thus has multiplicity and variation. Although she first heard this folktale during elementary school, she chose to look online to refresh her memory and came across the same folktale (with a morbid ending).

It does not seem strange to me that she has come across versions of the folktale with completely different endings. This is similar to what happened to the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Although the brothers Grimm originally worked on collecting fairy tales for the sake of preserving German culture, they began to realize that they could make more money if their book appealed to a wider audience. Thus, they did quite a lot of editing in order to make their fairy tale collections suitable for young children. As a result, many popular folk tales such as Hansel and Gretel can have very different endings (depending on the target audience of the book in which the tale is published).

The variation of ???? that Suzan summarized is nearly the opposite of most Western versions of Cinderella. Usually, the poor, hard-working girl is reward while her oppressive stepmother and stepsisters are punished. However, this specific variant of the “Korean Cinderella” does not have a happy ending for anyone. Instead, ?? dies and has her revenge by causing the death of ??.

Note: The entire tale, in Korean characters, is on the website listed below. The original tale is very long and thus was not copied and pasted here.

Annotation: http://www.seelotus.com/gojeon/gojeon/so-seol/kong-jwi-pat-jwi.htm

Date of access: April 14, 2007

Proverb

Nationality: Korean
Age: 17
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Spanish

“Whatever you do, whether it is studying, playing, sports, or praising God, do it to the best of your abilities.”

Origins

William heard this proverb from his father (who is a 1st generation Korean). Although they were simple words, they motivated him to exert himself in a variety of meaningful activities.

Collector’s comments

Personally, I thought they his father might have said this at a time when William was especially lazy. When I asked if his work ethic might have caused his father to tell him this proverb, he immediately replied that it was likely that his laziness warranted such a proverb.

Also, the first thought I had after William told me this proverb was of another very similar proverb. Although I cannot remember the exact words off the top of my head, it was a colonial era proverb I had read during a high school history class. The proverb was something like “If an activity is worth doing at all, it is worth doing to the best of your abilities.” Of course, there are now many satirical “proverbs” that play on this old proverb. For example, one website’s collection of pseudo-proverbs lists the following: “Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly”. This new variant of the old proverb that promoted diligence now jokingly promotes procrastination.

Parody of the proverb found at:

http://forums.theledger.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2221079265/m/4581086575/p/2