Author Archives: Sara Bosl

Volleyball Saying

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Nationality: Mexican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Ventura, California
Performance Date: April 19, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

J.F.P. “Just Fucking Play”

On my volleyball team, we used this saying when the refs were being unfair or the other team was playing dirty or the coach was being an asshole. It let us remember the forget everything else and just fucking play.  I first heard it on my high school team in Ventura.  I heard it again when I played club volleyball for USC.

Julie has played volleyball for most of her life.  She did not encounter this acronym until she reached high school.  This is probably because it uses mature language.  Julie usually self identifies as Mexican, but in this instance she identified as a volleyball player.  Knowing this phrase identifies her further as a volleyball player, because no one outside the team is supposed to know what it means.  I find it interesting that Julie said it is only supposed to be understood by the members of her team, but she encountered it on two different teams.  It is interesting how this acronym has spread, especially considering that the two teams that Julie was a part of were completely unrelated.

This acronym identifies the group even further because it is purposely keeping people out.  Julie said J.F.P. is used when the team is upset with the other team, the ref, or even their own coach.  The fact that they are even attempting to exclude their own coach shows how intimate of a group they are trying to form, including only the actual player on that specific team.

The phrase itself represents the general mentality and stereotype of the athletic world.  Athletes are generally seen as tough people, who will gut anything out to win the game.  This is the idea of J.F.P. As Julie said, it is meant to remind the player to forget everything else and just play to win the game.

Annotation: The Nike advertisement “Just Do It”.  This phrase can be seen in commercials, on billboards, in stores, and many more places.  It is a Nike trade mark that has very similar phrasing and meaning to J.F.P. They also both refer to athletics.

Proverb

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Nationality: German
Age: 63
Occupation: Lawyer
Residence: Long Beach, California
Performance Date: April 22, 2008
Primary Language: English

Everything’s hunky dory

Phil said that this was a phrase that his mother told him.  She told him that if he was ever kidnapped or if anything bad happened and he was able to call her, he should say everything’s hunky dory.  That way, she would know to contact the police.  He said it means everything is okay.  That way the bad people would not think that he was giving away any information, but at the same time his mother would know that something was wrong.

This is a piece of folk speech that identified them as part of that immediate family.  The purpose of the phrase was to exclude others.  Whoever the bad people were would not know the meaning of the phrase.  I do not think this phase would be as effective if it was used today.  People no longer really use the phrase hunky dory, so someone might suspect something if you did.

The phrase hunky dory can be considered a piece of folk speech itself.  Although it is not used very much anymore in the English language, most people still know what it means.  Its basic meaning is every things okay.  I researched it a little bit and I found two possible origins of the phrase.  One was that the main street of Yokohama was Huncho-dori Street. So, a sailor on shore leave would feel that everything was okay when they reached the main street.  Another possible origin is that the word hunk comes from the Dutch word honk, which means goal.  So, when you reached your goal everything was okay.  This explains the hunky part but does not give an explanation of where dory came from.

Joke

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Nationality: German
Age: 63
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Long Beach, California
Performance Date: Apri 22, 2010
Primary Language: English

A new client had just come in to see a famous lawyer.
“Can you tell me how much you charge?” said the client.
“Of course”, the lawyer replied, “I charge $200 to answer three questions!”
“Well that’s a bit steep, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is”, said the lawyer, “And what’s your third question?”

Phil was a lawyer who practiced for thirty years before retiring.  In the course of his practice he was told and sent many different lawyer jokes.  He said he chose this one because it captured two of the main themes used in lawyer jokes, tricky wording and over charging.  He heard jokes from many different people including clients and other lawyers.

This is a piece of occupational folklore.  It serves to stereotype people as well as identify them.  Obviously it is stereotyping lawyers.  It also helps to identify lawyers because they are the ones who have heard most of these jokes.  It also requires some sort of knowledge about the law business and its stereotype in order to understand the joke.

The first stereotype the joke plays on is that lawyers over charge.  The lawyer states a very large price for asking just three questions, and the client points out that this is the case.  The second stereotype involves the trickery of lawyers.  The client believes that he is simply trying to find out how much it would cost to use him.  In the end, he finds out that he is already using his services and being charged $200.

I had never heard this joke before my dad told it to me.  But, as he was telling it I knew what the ending was going to be.  This is because I grew up with a lawyer as a father and he often had trouble setting apart work from family.  So, I learned how to spot many lawyer tricks growing up.  This shows how stereotypes are not always wrong, and can often be enforced by the person who is being stereotyped.

Joke

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Nationality: German
Age: 63
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Long Beach, California
Performance Date: April 22, 2008
Primary Language: English

On the first day, God created the dog and said: “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of 20 years.”

The dog said: “That’s a long time to be barking. How about only 10 years and I’ll give you back the other 10?’

So God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said: “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a 20-year life span.”

The monkey said: “Monkey tricks for 20 years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back 10 like the Dog did?”

And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:

“You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of 60 years.”

The cow said: “That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for 60 years. How about 20 and I’ll give back the other 40?”

And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said: “Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you 20 years.”

But man said: “Only 20 years? Could you possibly give me my 20, the 40 the cow gave back, the 10 the monkey gave back, and the 10 the dog gave back — that makes 80, OK?”

“OK,” God said. “As long as you’re sure.”

So that is why for our first 20 years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next 10 years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last 10 years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Phil was a lawyer for thirty years, and has now been retired for three.  Since he is over 60 and one of the oldest members of our extended family, he said he gets a lot of the old people jokes.  He said he especially gets a lot of joke explaining the meaning of life.  Since people think he’s old and going to go soon, they figure he needs to figure it out now.  This joke was sent to him recently by one of his good friends.

This joke attempts to stereotype all humans, including at each stage of life.  It stereotypes all humans by calling us greedy.  Showing that stereotypes are quite often true, many people would agree that greed is a common theme among humans.

It stereotypes the first twenty years of a persons life as being carefree.  It says we eat, sleep, play, and enjoy ourselves.  I believe this is more the case for younger childhood because most people work very hard at school, work, and several other activities long before they are 20.

The second stereotype is of the next forty years of a person’s life.  It says you slave in the sun to support your family.  This stereotype is true in the sense that these are the years when most people are working.  It is wrong in that during this time there are many things people enjoy, including their children, and many people enjoy their jobs as well.  Phil said he agreed with this part of the joke the most.  He was partly kidding and partly serious.

The third stereotype is that for the next ten years you are retired and “doing monkey tricks” to entertain your grandchildren.  There is some truth in this stereotype as well.  This is about the time when most people are retired and having grandchildren.  Most people are still agile enough as well to do all sorts of stupid things to entertain their grandchildren.

The last stereotype is the last four years of one’s life.  It is the stereotype that old people are grumpy and just sit on the porch all day people watching.  I think that there is truth to this stereotype as well.  A lot of old people are grumpy, although there are a lot of very happy ones as well.  The sitting on the front porch stereotype can be true as well.  Many old people are not very agile and therefore they sit around all day.  They often enjoy watching other people as a sort of way to live vicariously through them.

Proverb

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Nationality: English
Age: 60
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Long Beach, California
Performance Date: April 22, 2008
Primary Language: English

Those who can do, those who can’t teach.

Charlene has been a teacher for over thirty years.  She did not hear this proverb until later in her career.  It has a very negative connotation and is very offensive to teachers.  It would never be said from one teacher to another, it is usually used by someone who wants to say that they are better than another person because the other person is a teacher.

This is a piece of occupational folklore, but not in the sense that it is passed between teachers, but because it is about teachers, and most of them have heard it at some point.  I have never fully understood this proverb because the people who use it got where they are by learning from teachers.

The first phrase, those who can do, is a very blanket statement that is not always true.  Many people are capable of things they just choose not to do them.  If you look at the statement in terms of the proverb, it is saying those that are capable of something do it, implying that teachers are not capable of doing whatever “it” is.  The first idea that comes to mind when I hear this is an injured person.  For example, if a person works construction gets hurt and can no longer to their job, they can still be involved in what they know by teaching others how to do it.  The fact that a person is trying to help and educate others should not be a bad thing, especially if the person is no longer capable of performing the task themselves.

The net part of the proverb has even more problems, those who can’t teach.  The basic premise of a teacher is a person who is highly skilled or knowledgeable in their field, so much so that they are able to teach others about it.  Wouldn’t this imply that teachers are even more capable than other people? The times when I have heard this proverb used, it was said by very successful people.  I simply do not understand why people would put down the people who are responsible for their success.

Even though this proverb is negative, it is occupational folklore and can work to unite teachers.  People usually identify more with one another and become closer when they are fighting against something negative rather than sharing something positive.