Author Archives: schropp

Aus Schaden wird man klug

Nationality: American
Age: 86
Occupation: Retired
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 4/24/16
Primary Language: English
Language: German

German Proverb: Aus Schaden wird man klug

English translation: Failure makes smart

According to the informant, Aus Schaden wird man klug is a proverb that reminds one of the essentialness of failure. We live in a world where many cultures devalue missteps instead of seeing them as being just as integral to progress as success.

The informant states that she came to know this proverb from her father who learned it from his German native father. It was when she first pursued playing the violin. She believed she could easily bypass others who found the instrument difficult to play well. Little did she know how difficult it really was. Ironically she played more poorely than her friends. After giving a few months she was ready to give up until she told her father of her intentions. This irked her father who then shared the proverb. This opened up her eyes as to how perceive failure. She embraced it and eventually came out of her learning rut. Since then she studied her failures more closely to better inform her next steps. This proverb she says holds an enourmas amount of value because it has fundamentally changed how she approaches mout things in life.

I found this proverb worth capturing because it provides a type of perspective on a matter, that is achieving success, that often comes from old and often overlooked wisdom, such as embracing failure. That is not to say there are cultures around the world who do not embrace failure today, but in the mainstream westernized way of thinking it has certainly been suppressed by many. What we must take away of from this is that understanding and appreciating antiquated thought may serve us in surprising ways. It is not something to reserve for the recepticals of time.

The informant is retired but worked as a secretary for quite some time. She is of German descent and has a great deal of German folklore knowledge that she had learned from her relatives.

Das Billige ist immer das Teuerste

Nationality: American
Age: 86
Occupation: Retired
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 4/22/16
Primary Language: English
Language: German

German proverb: Das Billige ist immer das Teuerste

Literal translation: “The cheapest is always the most expensive.

 

According to the informant, this proverb means that opting for quality is always of greater value, speaking long term,  than opting for something cheap or for greater abundance. This is because quality will sustain if it’s an object and you will learn and improve to a greater degree if dealing with a teacher of some sort.

This is said to be a very old saying in Germany that has been passed down for both personal benefit but also civil. This acts as a reminder that even the property, means to a cause or service must be value in terms of quality and that the people should invest a greater deal of resources into these things to insure a prosperous collective.

The informant values this proverb greatly because when she was young she was subject to dealing with many faulty things and horrible teachers here in the states because of the disregard for quality. Part of this had to do with living through the Great Depression  but looking back she says that there were many instances where procuring quality would have saved her family a great deal of time, energy and money.

 

I selected this proverb from the informants repertoire because I felt it carried a great deal of merit in an age of synthetic and cheap knockoffs of quality products. Some people obviously still value nice well made things but too many fall for the short term trap. From a business end cheaper is better because it can ensure sales long-term. But if you look to the past many companies and groups of people made solid products regardless of the price. It is as though there’s been a shift of values for the sake of profit.

If we look at the creations of their German people, they are notorious for producing quality products  it is likely this proverb transcended its folk roots into mainstream production philosophy, at least to a good degree

 

The informant is retired but worked as a secretary for quite some time. She is of German descent and has a great deal of German folklore knowledge that she had learned from her relatives.

 

 

 

German Proverb: Den Wald

Nationality: American
Age: 86
Occupation: Retired
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 4/24/16
Primary Language: English
Language: German
The informant is retired but worked as a secretary for quite some time. She is of German descent and has a great deal of German folklore knowledge that she had learned from her relatives.
The informant shares a German proverb:
In German: Du siehst den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht.English Translation (literal): You don’t see the forest for all the trees

 

This is explained to mean that one does not see their life for the big picture, but rather the minutia, which can cause someone to lose sight of where they should be going or who they are as a whole entity.

The proverb was told to the informant when she was a young woman. She went to visit her grandmother in Austria. At this time the informant was caught up in some small social ordeal at school which bothered her doing her trip to Europe. This proverb was shared with her to give her perspective on the insignificance of this matter and how it is your life on a bigger scale that must be currently worried about.
Since this it of advice, the informant went on to use it as a means to keep perspective of her life outside the immediate. The informant notes that post WWII when many cities were destroyed, it seemed like all was lost. For many this proverb acted as a reminder of the long term growth that will take place to restore Europe.
This proverb is so simple yet a very apt metaphor for its meaning. It’s function as a reminder for the people to transcend their negative thoughts about post WWII is something to note because it is this sort of circumstance that gives the proverb such a strong purpose which enables it to be subject to great use amongst those effected by the war. Folklore is always passed down for some reason, most notably tradition, but here it is a tool for healing.

Mork Call

Nationality: American & English
Age: 24
Occupation: Marketer
Residence: Boston
Performance Date: 4/20/16
Primary Language: English

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About the Informant

The informant is a wordly individual. He’s travelled to more than 20 countries and has lived for long periods in 3 of them, including England, America and Norway. Although born in America he is native to both the US and England. His primary focus is on technology and marketing and utilizes these fields for an understanding of the places he travels to. A great deal of his adolescents were spent in Lonion, so he has gained a good deal of insight into the lore of various sub-cultures there.

Description (What is being performed):

Amongst some youth in England, a distinct call where one creates the hand gesture (see photo above) and places their mouth up to the whole that is made and aggressively yell the word “mork” , is made to people that you like to poke fun at or simply dislike.  This is often done by groups who collectively share mutual feelings for people. A primary objective is for the “Target'” to not notice that the noise is being directed toward them. Therefore the call is often made when the target is at a distance and hasn’t acknowledged the perpetrator.

The Informant (Background info about performance from informant):

The informant states that he did not discover this call but rather came up with it when with his friends while at university in England. One day his group heard the mork sound being made by someone which they then adopted. At a later point the informant saw a classmate that he and his friends liked to make fun of and he said mork as the student walked by. This was the moment where purpose was assigned the call. Since then they would do it to random people and others would catch them do it. They too would start to use it. The call spread quickly amongst various groups of friends and even so in the states where the informant coninuted college.

It is said that the ability to vent your dislike to someone while close in proximity is partially what makes doing it so humorous and satisfying. ALso the fact that the target is unaware of it makes it funnier. Additionally it acts as a way for a group of people to bond with one another, whether it be a group of friends who share the dislike for someone, or when hearing someone your unfamiliar with do it, which instantly creates a connection between you two.

The Analysis (My Thoughts):
People have been making chants or signal sounds for centuries. One particular context is making sounds to warn a group of an approaching other. In war this is often used, but the with the mork sound it is put in a humorous context. Within this use it is as though a sense of false superiority is trying to be established. I say false because unless the target is aware of this call, then they may not perceive the perpetrators as superior. Along side this the call functions as a way of venting.

The fact that the sound catches on quickly and that a sort of sub-culture forms around those who know and understand it means its ability to sustain its existence throughout time to some degree or another is likely.

Stretching to Grow

Nationality: American
Age: 57
Occupation: General Contractor
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: April 20th 2016
Primary Language: English

 

Description (What is being performed): 

When by brother was a kid my father would stretch him out by pulling on his legs as He held onto a pole we had in our backyard. He did this to stretch him out with the expectation of growing taller if it was done every day.

The Informant (Background info about performance from informant):

Me: “How did you come to know about this method of growth?

Dad: “Your Gramps did it to me, and my gramps did it to him?

Me: “But we don’t know what it actually works, right?”

Dad: “Some days I seem to think so (laughs)”

Me: “And why did you feel the need to aggressively pull your sons legs? (Laughs)”

Dad: “It’s all about basketball. You got to be tall in that game.”

Me:”So what you’re saying is you really wanted your son to be tall enough to play basketball and would do whatever it takes.”

Dad: “Pretty much, yeah.”

Me: “What does it mean to you?”

Dad: “What does it mean to me?”…”It’s a fathers way of not accepting things as they are. Maybe it’s arrogance, thinking we can shape our sons into what we want even if it’s attempt to defy the reality.”

Me: “That’s an interesting thought. In a way it’s a very micro version of boiling down the dilemma of man vs nature.”

Dad: “In a way, except we were also unsure at the time whether or not it worked. It started out as experimentation, then as time went on it was wishful thinking when we realized no one grew.”

(closing words)

The Analysis (My Thoughts):

The informant brings up an interesting perspective regarding what the belief means to him. He states “It’s a fathers way of not accepting things as they are…thinking we can shape our sons into what we want even if it’s attempt to defy reality” this I notice is a long standing trope between not just fathers, but parents and their children. They’ll go as far as to practice an unproven method of getting their child to be who they want them to be. Also so long as it can’t be disproven, they’ll continue to utilize it to simply feed into that desire. This seems to be something we can see along many folk beliefs, not so much in the parent child situation, but people hold onto and live out these notions through generations because of a traditional/long standing desire that these long standing tradition beliefs satisfy. Additionally a component of both this stretching out to grow belief and folk beliefs in general is that they become a bit of identification for lineages who pass whatever it is down. As my father states he knew that it didn’t work but his father grandfather did it to his father, and his father to himself, and subsequently he did so to his son.