Category Archives: Folk speech

Kappa in Japanese Folklore

Main Text:

KY: I’ll tell you about the kappa. It’s this, uhm— it’s basically this monster that lives in the river. The Japanese created this story of the kappa which is this monster… Its head is like a lily pad, and it just like submerges itself under water. So, if you see a lily pad in your river or something, it could be the kappa. They’re also like very hard to see. So they can be like just in like the rocks and stuff… So they’re like very scary monsters. They’re very, very scary… And they can come out at night, and take kids away… They’re really short as well, if I remember correctly… I think that like, in Japan, the reason why— it’s because rivers are dangerous, and they don’t want kids playing at rivers at night without supervision…

Context:

This was taken from a conversation with me and one of my suitemates, who is of Japanese descent, in the Cale & Irani Apartments in USC Village. He has heard of these creatures for as long as he can remember, from “before he could even speak.” He was warned of them by his parents and grandfather, who lived near a river, that he used to visit when he also lived in Japan.

Analysis:

We often see these folk beliefs and cautionary tales told to children, by their parents, to keep them away from danger. It makes a commentary on adult supervision since, apparently, parents are the only ones strong enough to fight back against these creatures. Stories like these are designed to scare children, make them weary of the unknown, and to keep them close to their parents. This particular belief can also reflect the societal fear that Japan has with bodies of water since it is notorious for bad weather such as storms, floods, and tsunamis.

“Six of One, Half a Dozen of the Other”

Main Piece:

Me: Can you repeat that? (Silence.)

Roommate: *laughs*

Me: Oh no! SP, can you hear me?

SP: *laughs* It cut out for a second, ‘kay? Yeah, I can hear you guys now.

Me: Can you repeat what the phrase was?

SP: “Six of one, half a dozen of the other.” Which just basically means same difference.

Me: What would you use that for in like— like saying that for?

SP: I often contradict myself, all the time, with my thinking. And I’m a bit of an over thinker—and so I think, sometimes, that phrase can get me out of my rabbit hole when I’m like— I don’t know, thinking too deeply about something…

Me: Got it. And where did you learn this phrase from?

SP: Where did I learn that? I… (She thinks.) Learned it… *whispers* Fuck! I don’t know.

Me: That’s okay!

SP: It was a very common phrase back when my grandparents were young.

Me: Okay, uhm, who would you hear say this? Did your grandparents ever say it to you?

SP: Yeah, my grandfather did… My grandfather on my mom’s side when I was young… like six. And visit them, in the summers.

Me: And do you know why? Like, in what context he would say it?

SP: Usually… when we’re fighting about something. Or like the family is bickering. And it’s like…

Me: Ah, got it. Got it.

SP: “Same difference.” You know?

Me: “Same difference.”

Context:

Performed over a FaceTime call. One of my roommates friends, a high school senior. She is in her bedroom in Alameda, California.

Analysis:

This was especially interesting to me because I know the components of what is being said, but I didn’t understand them without the context given by the informant. According to her, this is more popular amongst older generations in America. I thought of it as a practical saying, but hearing how her grandfather used it to settle disputes and pacify family arguments really made it special. I can see why she uses it now in her personal life as a way of anchoring herself to reality and practicing mindfulness, and I’m glad she was able to find an emotional attachment to this piece of family folklore.

Palabok, New Year’s, and Circular Shapes

On New Year’s Eve, I always cook palabok… it’s a, it’s a rice noodle dish with shrimp stock and pork… but the most important part is the stuffs you put on the top.  You know how I always have you arrange everything in a circle, right? Have you ever noticed that even the toppings are circles?  So I put the noodles in a circular serving platter, and we have the slices of hard boiled egg, the chopped green onions, the boiled shrimp, squid rings, the calamansi halves.  All of that is supposed to be circular to invite wealth and abundance in the coming year.  Di ako sure kung talagang Pilipino yung tradition na ‘yun… (I’m not sure if that tradition really is Filipino) because the idea of circles is usually part of the Chinese culture.  Maybe it’s an influence, I don’t know, I didn’t really ever think much about when I started doing it or why.

Background: The informant is a 48-year old Filipina immigrant to the United States who is married to a Filipino-Chinese man.  She learned how to cook traditional Filipino foods from scratch from her mother and oldest brother in the Philippines, where cooking meals from household items was essential to maximizing the volume of food when money was scarce.

Context: This conversation happened at the dinner table, where the informant and I were eating store-bought palabok that was not arranged in circles.

I am not really very well-connected to the Chinese aspects of my identity, since I was raised only in the Philippines and the United States, where even my Chinese relatives had largely assimilated to the cultures of their respective environments.  Arranging food in a way that invites wealth from a different culture’s beliefs is a practice of my mother’s that I found more interesting after I began to reflect upon what she told me.  The circular food and arrangement is a call back to her previous life in the Philippines, where financial stability was a primary concern at every turn.  The sprinkling of a different culture’s traditions (likely my father’s influence) reminded me of myself, the way that they are mixed together.  Food is an incredibly important aspect of family life in the Philippines, and families in a household scarcely eat their meals separately.

Frugality Proverb

Original Script: “Kung may isinuksok, may idudukot”

Transliteration: koong my ee-sin-ook-sok, my ee-doo-doo-kot

Literal Translation: If there is something put in, there is to take out

Smooth Translation: If there is something to put in, there is something to take out

Background: The informant is a 68 year-old Filipina immigrant who moved to the United States with her two children when she was 40 years old.  She heard this proverb from her father, who raised her and her siblings frugally in her childhood.  She had to use these skills as she started her life in the United States from scratch.

Context: This piece was told to me at a luncheon after our weekly Sunday services.

This proverb refers to being wise with one’s money, that if you invest or save for a rainy day, then it will be there to use when you need it.  Many of the informant’s relatives migrated from the Philippines to the United States from the 1970’s all the way to the 2010’s.  As new immigrants, it was essential that they were prudent with the money they had so that they could provide their children with a bettr life.  Prior to that, the informant was also raised in a context where financial stability was difficult to achieve.  Therefore, her father often only saved their money for the family’s essentials with little room for the “wants” in life so that they had extra money for unexpected situations.

One Fall

Original Script: Isang bagsak

Transliteration: ee-sang bawg-sack

Literal Translation: One fall

Smooth Translation: Everyone is in this together, and things won’t be accomplished without everyone all connected to each other.

Background: This saying was recently incorporated into one of the gestures and sayings used by USC Troy Philippines.  Members get into a circle and perform one coordinated clap whilst chanting the saying to symbolize their solidarity with each other and other members of the Filipinx community.

Context: This piece was told to me in person, during a USC Troy Philippines programming event.

This is similar to the English saying, “all for one, one for all” where it promotes the idea of solidarity amongst a group of people.  This saying is a direct reference to the political nature of Filipino history and how farmworkers needed to band together.  Created by Larry Itliong, he shared his ideas with Cesar Chavez during the Labor Movements of the 1960’s.  In this context, it is being used by a college Filipino organization in order to promote solidarity and connection between org members.  The political nature of the saying also seeps into USC Troy Philippines’ mission, as the organization also takes measures to advocate for Filipino political issues.