Category Archives: Folk speech

Kinakain Ng Mata

There’s like, “kinakain ng mata” Directly translated it’s like “you eat with your eyes,” um, which means like you order too much food for yourself and you just never finish it, it’s like what they tell people, like what they tell kids who like waste their food or like, just, don’t know their limits, for portions.

Background: My informant, as is their family, is Filipino, and they speak Tagalog often with their parents and siblings.

Context: This piece was collected in an in-person conversation in my apartment.

My thoughts: This expression reflects a cultural emphasis on the conservation of resources, especially food. It condemns food waste and reprimands making hasty decisions without thinking them through.

Undoing the Macbeth Curse

Background: the informant is a college student and theater major. He is originally from Scranton, PA. He is also my roommate. 

Context: I asked him about this practice while he was cleaning the room. 

Me: What do you do to undo the curse if you say “Macbeth” in a theater?

Informant: Go outside, spin around three times, over your left shoulder, spit over your left shoulder, say a curse word, knock and be let back in. 

(He was adamant that this is the only right way)

Reflection: I asked another theater student with a different background about how to undo the same curse, and she had a slightly different answer. This informant was positive there was a right and wrong way to do this, whereas the other informant (who had folklore experience) believed there were a variety of ways that this tradition could be performed. Perhaps the saying a curse word part of this tradition has something to do with a transference of the curse or bad luck. 

The Jargon of Hockey

Background:

The informant is a 25-year-old who grew up playing hockey his entire life. He began playing hockey when he was only three years old and played until age 24. We were teammates for two years in the BCHL, a junior hockey league in British Columbia, Canada. The informant has used jargon from the hockey community for most of his life.

Context:

The Folklore was collected through a scheduled zoom meeting with the informant where we discussed memories of playing hockey together, and common jargon used by the hockey community. He learned most of it through other hockey players. There is not really an origin point that can be located for any of the specific parole, but it is all widely circulated and known jargon. I experienced and partook in some of this jargon as well throughout my 19 years of playing hockey, and we discussed some very strange, almost humorous jargon that somehow was universally known and used among the hockey community.

Main Piece:

‘Huge Tilt’: A major fight in a hockey game. “Mike and Kleysen had a huge tilt last night”

‘Chirp’: To trash talk another player. “Mike has been chirping me all game”

‘Dangle’: To deke or outmaneuver another player. “Did you see me dangle that defenseman?”

‘Muffin’: A shot on goal that was very poor or weak. “Mike was throwing muffins on the net all night”

‘Lettuce’: Nice hair of another player. “Mike has the best lettuce on the team”

‘Gong show’: A game that gets out of control from big hits. “Our game against Penticton last week was a gong show”

‘Grocery Stick’: A player that doesn’t get much playing time. “Mike chirps way to much for a grocery stick”

‘Apple’: An Assist. “Mike had an unreal apple last period”

‘Bingo’: A goal. “Mike had three bingos last night”

‘Biscuit’: The puck. “Hey Mike, you got to get me the biscuit more often in the offensive zone”

‘Cheese’: Scoring in the top portion of the hockey net. “Mike went cheese on their goalie”

‘Barnburner’: A high-scoring game. “We had a barnburner last week… everybody was putting up points”

Interpretation:

The Jargon of hockey players is something that many people find humorous. Some comedy tv shows such as “Letterkenny” have even been created making fun of the parole used. Personally, I did not find any of this language funny when I played hockey growing up. It was just the way we communicated with each other. However, being a few years removed from the sport, it seems almost ridiculous that the informant and I spoke this way for most of our lives. What is very interesting to me is that this specific parole is widely known and used among the hockey community, and almost all the jargon is comprised of real English words, yet none of them mean their literal English definitions. If someone were to use this jargon with anyone outside of the hockey community, they would not understand what you are saying and most likely view it as very abnormal speech. Although within the hockey community, nobody would bat an eye at the obscure phrasing of these words and perfectly understand what you are communicating to them. Many of the words are typically used together as tropes among the hockey community, and these tropes would surely confuse a person unfamiliar with this hockey jargon.

For another version, see Jacob Tierney, February 7, 2016, “Letterkenny”.

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease…”

Folklore/ Text: “The squeaky wheel gets the grease…” 

Explanation/ Context: My parents have always told me that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” It’s an old proverb that has been passed through my family for generations and has a greater metaphor. In other words, the proverb tells us that if you work hard, speak up, and vocalize interest toward obtaining or achieving something, your needs will be met and your hard work will serve you well. It’s almost like saying “the early bird gets the worm.” When I complain that I don’t like my meal at a restaurant, my parents will say “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” which translates in my mind to “if you want something different to eat, you gotta speak up!” Or, when I was dying to go to USC in high school they would say “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” which ultimately told me that “I need to work hard and do well in every aspect of my high school career if I wanna achieve the USC acceptance.” This folklore in my family has been verbally passed along to me by my parents, whose parents also passed it down to them. It’s familial folklore, although I’m sure it is used by other people in many other contexts.

German Proverb: Cats in the Night

Background: My friend, ZK, comes from a German family and is bilingual in English and German. I asked her if she knew any German proverbs, and this was her response:

ZK: “Another proverb I know is In der Nacht sind alle Katzen grau, and that translates to ‘in the night all the cats are grey’ which means at night people are no longer individuals because they all look the same.”

Analysis: This proverb is interesting because I think it speaks a lot to a collectivist identity. Similar to the themes of the other proverbs about anti-materiality and delayed gratification, it appears that German proverbs shoot for the long-term goals–in the end, most of what you’re currently doing will be irrelevant, and so constantly having a sense of the big picture appears to be important here, and these proverbs are intended to prevent people from losing focus here.