Category Archives: Folk speech

Unity in Numbers

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 03/20/17
Primary Language: French
Language: English

Subject: Proverb

Informant: Phillipe was born in Quebec, Canada and has two sisters and a brother. His family is originally from Quebec, therefore he grew up with french as his native tongue.  He currently studies Finance in California.

Original Script: L’union fait la force / Union Makes Strength

Background information by informant: This proverb is very powerful in Canada because it addresses the core of Canadian culture. The best way to become strong and powerful in anything is through the unification of individual elements. That is especially true when attempting to organize and manage such a large and powerful country such as Canada

Context of performance: This proverb prevails in any team setting, especially in sports. However, it also emerges in academic environments such as business classes in school.

Thoughts: Even though a proverb such as this one is very applicable to a competitive team setting, it is curious to note how it can expand its original intended boundaries to generate a much larger effect in an entire culture. Consequently, this creates a powerful unity within all members of a particular culture.

Barrel and Wine Proverb

Nationality: Italian
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/26/17

Subject: Proverb

Informant: Guido was born in Rome, Italy in a traditional Italian family. He currently studies business in California and plays rugby for his college team.

Original Script: La botte vecchia fa il vino buono / The old barrel makes the good wine.

Background information by informant: It describes the respect and regard that Italians have for not only old material items, but also for their elders. The culture understands that as you age, you gain valuable knowledge and experience that you continue to carry with you.

Context of performance: It proverb comes through in the manner that most Italians pay a lot of respect to their elders throughout their day to day.

Thoughts: A proverb can be a lot more than simply a short saying. It can allude to the manner in which a culture interacts with each other and what they attribute value too. Additionally, it also influences later generations to value similar things.

Proverb on keeping a normal heart

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: U.S.
Performance Date: March 18, 2017
Primary Language: English

Here is a proverb my friend provided on keeping a normal heart. She says this is something her mom always says to her, whenever she’s upset over something, to remind her to have a normal heart.

Proverb:

The followings are Original script, Phonetic script, Transliteration, and Full translation in order.

塞          翁          失      马，          焉          知     非     福。

Sai       weng      shi     ma,           yan         zhi     fei    fu.

Sai       man      lost     horse,      how     know    not    blessing.

Even though Mr. Sai lost his horse, it might actually be a blessing for him.

 

Thoughts:

This proverb is referencing a story of Mr. Sai:

One day, Mr. Sai’s horse ran away. Since he was not particularly wealthy, the horse was indeed a big loss. However, Mr. Sai laughed and said, “How do you know, it might actually be a good thing!”

Months later, the horse came back, along with a pony. It seemed like while Mr. Sai’s horse was gone, she gave birth to the pony. Everyone came and say congrats to Mr. Sai, but Mr. Sai said, “How do you know it’s not a bad thing?”

Days later, Mr. Sai’s little boy tried to ride the pony and failed, broke his leg and became lame. Everyone felt sorry for Mr. Sai, but once again he said, “How do you know it’s not a bad thing?”

Years had passed and the war began. The Emperor ordered each household should send a man to the war, but since Mr. Sai was extremely old and his son couldn’t even walk properly, they were excluded from the draught.

 

It’s interesting that many of the proverbs in China are actually referencing a story (historically true or not) that supposedly everyone should know. Hidden in the proverbs, it’s the culture that’s being past down.

Funny Korean Proverb

Nationality: Korean
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Informant SL is a junior studying business communication at the University of Southern California. She is of Korean descent and only moved to America at the age of 16. Here, she performs a proverb that is very notorious to her because she heard it for the first time after doing something she learned she shouldn’t have done.

Original Proverb: 누워서 침 뱄기

English Translation: “Lying down and spitting.”

The informant was an only child growing up. For this reason, in elementary school, she didn’t have anyone to vent about her parents with. So one time she bad-mouthed her parents to a friend. This friend told her mom, and the friend’s mom told the informant’s mom. The story ends with the informant’s mom repeating the proverb to the informant. The proverb is very apt in this case because the informant explained that she essentially “lied down and spit on herself” because by telling a friend, she invariably ended up telling her mother. The informant believes that this proverb is very significant to know because it can apply to almost anything. It is akin to the concept of karma because what goes around will always come around (or land on yourself as spit in this case).

To me, this proverb is very simple to decipher. I take it to mean don’t do anything that could come back to bite you. This is especially relevant in today’s day and age due to the prevalence of the internet and social media. Everything we do online is documented and saved forever in the archives of the internet. This means something we have published over 5 years ago could be resurfaced at a later date. Everyone knows of very obvious examples of where this has happened, but everyone at one point or another has posted or commented something they would not like the world to see. For this reason, it is imperative that one doesn’t “lie down and spit”. This etiquette is essential to prevent something incriminating coming back to cause harm further down the line.

Common Korean Proverb

Nationality: Korean
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Informant SL is a junior studying business communication at the University of Southern California. She is of Korean descent and only moved to America at the age of 16. Here, she performs the proverb she is most familiar with because it is very commonly stated in Korean society.

Original Proverb: 오늘 걷지 않으면, 내일 뛰어야 한다

English Translation: “If you don’t walk today, you must run tomorrow.”

The informant explained that this proverb means that if you don’t do something easier today, it’ll be even harder tomorrow. She likes the proverb because it’s not something she lives by, but it motivates her to hear it. Since Korean is her first language, it feels deeper to her. She heard this proverb from her father who told her because she was not doing her work back in elementary school, and it has stuck with her ever since.

This proverb resonated with me because procrastination is something I often find myself struggling with. I have heard many different versions of this proverb, like the “journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”, yet none really stuck with me like this one did. This proverb articulated my thoughts on procrastination by putting it into very simple terms. Essentially, everything is made easier by splitting it up into more manageable parts. However, if things are put off, the effort to complete it is a lot more uncomfortable and unmanageable. The analogy between procrastination and running is very accurate. Both are very uncomfortable, yet very often unavoidable due to human nature.