Category Archives: Folk speech

 “Lluvia antes de las tres, buena tarde es.”

TEXT: “Lluvia antes de las tres, buena tarde es.”

INFORMANT DESCRIPTION: Male, 58 years old, Mexican.

CONTEXT: This phrase was said in and is only applicable to Mexico City when it would be raining in the morning. He learned it from his mother who learned it from her mother. Said in the morning with knowledge that the rain would clear by the afternoon, which in Mexico was after lunch so by 2:30pm or 3:00pm.

ANALYSIS: Mexico City is the center of Mexico. It is like if you combined Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C. all in one city. It is where politics, centralized government, and business has happened for many decades. Families have been living there for centuries. The city is a valley surrounded by mountains, the valley itself is already at a very high elevation, it is the coolest weather within a very tropical country. Therefore it has its own ecosystem/weather. These inhabitants have seen this pattern, that if it rains in the morning it will be lovely afternoon for hundreds of years, making this proverb very reliable and common. The informant grew up with it and it still applies. He would plan his day on it, if it rained in the morning he would make afternoon plans to be outdoors.

ORIGINAL SCRIPT: “Lluvia antes de las tres, buena tarde es.”

TRANSLITERATION: “Yoo-vee-ah ahn-teh-ss -deh-lah-ss treh-ss boo-eh-nah tah-rr-deh eh-ss.”

TRANSLATION: “Rain before three, good afternoon it is.”

THOUGHTS: I think it is really fascinating to be in a place with a climate that follows a pattern so closely. Sort of like a rainbow after the rain but you know it will always happen no matter what. I’ve spent time in Mexico City but never noticed this and am excited to go back and hopefully see for myself if it is true.

Chinese proverbs

Nationality: Chinese/American
Age: 55
Occupation: Research Scientist
Performance Date: 4/29/2022
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Background: The informant is my father, a Chinese immigrant who lived in Beijing until he was 22. Since then, he has lived and worked in the US.

恭喜发财 (Gōngxǐ fācái) – Wishing you wealth and prosperity

Informant: Chinese people love money. Gong xi fa cai means…good luck, get rich. Every year at Chinese New Years they always give presents to..or just…pay homage to the god of money. 

Me: Who is the god of money?

Informant: He’s called…”Cáishén yé” (财神爷) – “cai” as in wealth, “shen” as in god, “ye” as in grandpa, or like old man. So, god of money. It’s a little funny, how everyone greets each other with this “gōngxǐ fācái” at New Years.

万般皆下品，惟有读书高 (Wànbān jiē xiàpǐn, wéiyǒu dúshū gāo) – Everything else is inferior compared to reading

Informant: We wanted you to study hard…Chinese people really value education. This means that all other things are less important than studying, or going to university. 

Me: Did your parents tell that to you growing up

Informant: Yes. My dad would always tell me that if i studied, I could have money, and if i had money, i could find a beautiful wife.

吃得苦中苦 方为人上人 (Chī dé kǔ zhōng kǔ fāng wéirén shàng rén) – Working hard allows one to be ahead of everyone else

Informant: If you want to be better than other people, you have to suffer more than them as well. Chinese people value hard work. And they’re very competitive. They want to be….better than everyone. It’s similar to the English saying “no pain no gain”.

Me: Why are they so competitive? 

Informant: Um…That’s just in their nature. They really compare themselves others. They really value hard work. They want to be better than everybody, they want to be richer than everybody.

Informant: Basically Chinese people really value education, hard work, and want to be on top – in wealth, and…just….want to be higher in their social status. They really admire people who have high positions in government. I think Chinese people are a little…vain. They value wealth and fame, they love celebrities too. Now I see some of these things as funny, like how Chinese people love money so much that they made so many sayings, but when i lived in China I didn’t necessarily find it funny. They were just what I grew up with.

Context: These were told to me over a recorded phone call. Some parts have been translated from mandarin. I have transcribed here excerpts from the recording.

Analysis:

塞翁失马，焉知非福 – Sai Weng lost his horse, how can I know it is not a blessing

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 49
Occupation: Software Engineer
Performance Date: 4/29/2022
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Background: The informant is a Chinese immigrant who immigrated to the US in adulthood. She grew up on a small island off the coast of China.

Informant: “The old man in the story is named Sai Weng…”sai” means far away, far from the city, and “weng” means sort of..just old man. Sai Weng raised horses in the countryside. He had a great horse to help till his fields, but one day it ran away. His neighbor said to him, you must have spent so much money on this wonderful horse, you must be very upset. But the farmer was not sad, he said, “Who knows whether this is a good or bad thing?

But one night the horse returned and brought many female horses with him, who would now all belong to the farmer. Everyone congratulated the farmer, but he still said, “We don’t know if it’s good or bad.”

Sai Weng had a son who loved to ride horses, and he wanted to tame the wild horses. One day while trying to ride a wild horse he broke his leg. His neighbors offered their condolences to him, they said “Oh no, what a young healthy man but his leg is broken now. What a loss, I am very sorry.” The old man stayed quiet, and the neighbors asked why. “Good thing or bad thing, it’s hard to say,” the old man finally said. The neighbors did not understand him at all. His son was crippled, and he’s not even sad! One day, a war broke out in China. All the young men in the village were sent to the war, but when they came to Sai Weng’s house, they saw his son had a broken leg and did not make him go to war. That war was terrible…most of the young men who had been sent to fight died, and Sai Weng’s son was one of the only young men left in the village. Then, the neighbors perhaps understood.

Basically when bad things happen, you always stay positive.

This is… sort of…old people talk. An old man’s wisdom. The core main idea is that you must stay positive, even in the face of unlucky circumstances.

When good things happen, he remains cautious. He is prepared for the bad things. He stays strong. When anything bad happens, he won’t be devastated: he always stays positive. When good things happen, don’t be overly excited. The American saying “There’s no free lunch” is similar I believe…when something good happens you should still be weary. It’s the Chinese people’s philosophy, don’t be too happy but don’t be too sad. When good things happen stay cautious, and when bad things happen stay positive”

Me: “Where did you first hear this story?”

Informant: “I think I heard this story in my textbooks when I was in school, or maybe my dad told it to me.”

Context: This was told to me over a recorded phone call. The text is mostly translated from mandarin, though certain sentences and words were told to me in English.

“Du gehst mir auf den Keks”

Nationality: American/German
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/20/2022
Primary Language: English
Language: German

Translation: you’re getting on my cookie

The informant is the daughter of 2 German immigrants. She was born in Germany, lived in France when she was young for a bit, and grew up in the US. She is now a college student.

A: The direct translation of “Du gehst mir auf den Keks” is like, “you’re getting on my cookie”, which obviously doesn’t really make sense in English but it actually just means like, “you’re getting on my nerves” or like “driving me crazy”… my parents used to say this to me all the time because I was a really annoying kid haha.

Me: why does it mean cookie…?

A: I mean, I’m not super sure….I feel like food is used in a lot of German insults I guess? It’s just something parents will say to their kids a lot ‘cause it’s like…a lighthearted way of telling someone they’re annoying. Like no one would say that if they were actually super mad so it’s like a kind of subtly funny-ish way of telling your kid they’re annoying you. 

Context: This was told to me during a recorded in person conversation.

Batman Jingle Bells

Background

The informant is a freshman at USC and is originally from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. She is the roommate of a fellow informant and offered to be interviewed when I went to their apartment to conduct my interview. She has no specific religious affiliations nor does she identify with any ethnic subgroup within the United States. She is referred to as “BS”.

Context

I asked about any humorous jingles or tunes that the informant was aware of.

Content

“Jingle bells

Batman smells

Robin laid an egg

Batmobile lost its wheel

and the joker played ballet.”

I don’t know if that’s where it ends. Is that where it ends? Cause that’s all I remember- the kids singing it on the school bus. School bus was horrible.

Analysis

This rendition of Jingle Bells, using Batman characters, is fairly ubiquitous among children. The origins of it are unknown, but most kids know some version of it. I personally heard a different version, where the last line is “and the Joker got away”, but that is part of the essence of this tune being folkloric in origin – it doesn’t have one set of lyrics but has options. This tune is also demonstrative of the humor of children; they take things they’re aware of (Jingle Bells and Batman) and make it ridiculous. Jingle Bells is not the only song I’ve heard funny versions of – kids do it to all sorts of songs for fun. Children frequently begin to ridicule or joke about subjects they previously liked as a way to demonstrate their maturity; to show that they are old enough to find those “childish” things ridiculous.