Category Archives: Folk speech

And That’s Why the Bear Lost It’s Tail

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27/16
Primary Language: English

Piece:

“Do you have any Romanian proverbs?”

Well there’s this Romanian story about how the bear lost it’s tail. I don’t remember how it goes, but I remember it, because every time I did something that disappoint my mom, she would look at me and go ‘And that’s why the bear lost its tail’

“Does it have an exact meaning”

It does in Romanian, but that’s how it’s translated–it doesn’t really make the same sense in English.

Informant & Context:

My informant is a student at the university of southern California, originally from Sammamish, Washington and of Romanian descent. She described her family as very Americanized. This proverb originates from a Romanian origin myth about why the bear has no tail.

Thoughts:

It’s interesting to me that the informant does not actually remember the story, but simply the title—which has become a proverb in her family (if it was not already one). Aside from that, it doesn’t really have a direct meaning, instead it is more a vague association with shame and disappointment. It sounded like the phrase was used to be comedic—as more of a punch line.

#LCSBigPlays

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angelas
Performance Date: 4/22/16
Primary Language: English

Piece:

In the LCS (League of Legends Championship series) — it’s the biggest championship series– there are certain known playmaking character that are consistently super important to team fights. This commentator Phreak would sometimes comment “WOW big plays” whenever one of those pivotal moments occurred in a game. Thus started the hashtag #LCSBigPlays. Then it became a balance criticism after characters continually performed well in tournaments and it was theorized that Riot refused to balance these characters because they were exciting to watch in tournaments and the company didn’t want to take away from the spectacle (Specifically in reference to the character Ahri, who has been first-pick banned in tournaments for the last 2 years).

 Information & Context:

My informant for this piece is a student at the University of Southern California who has been involved in the League of Legends community for the past 5 years. He was exposed to this piece of folk Speech after watching the LCS one year in which Phreak commentated and witnessed the rise of the hash tag in online games in the following months.

 Thoughts:

I find it interesting that a lot of the folk speech insults in online games originate from an attempt to parody something in the community’s spotlight. This intrigues me because it indicates a role reversal—using something that has become overused in an attempt to highlight an idiosyncrasy in the game. This folk speech insult has become popular in an attempt to chastise the game’s creator for not providing more balance in the game to it’s players.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Nationality: British
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chichester, United Kingdom
Performance Date: April 25th 2016
Primary Language: English

“Every cloud has a silver lining”

This is a British proverb that means: In every unpleasant situation still has a positive aspect to it.

The informant is a childhood friend of mine of British descent. He claims to have heard this proverb multiple times throughout his life. This proverb is poignant for being a very ‘British’ proverb, for lack of a better word; at a literal level, the fact that a cloud refers to an unpleasant situation is very apt when considering the British obsession with weather. However, the most moving part of the proverb for me was that it was a message of hope – in hardship the person has to endure it, for there is hope to be found somewhere.

Folk Speech of the Gangwon Province

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 51
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Shanghai, China
Performance Date: April 14th 2016
Primary Language: Korean

Context

South Korea is home to multiple provinces/regions and rich in their respective dialects. Outside of the country, there are dialects formed by Korean populations in central Asia, China, Japan and the United States. Standard Korean, a ‘modern Seoul dialect used by educated people’ (a definition that remains controversial), is used throughout official capacities and broadcast television. Sometimes children will take on the dialects of their parents, or be influenced by their area of residence or language of study to speak a unique idiolect. This entry focuses on the dialect of the Gangwon province as the informant has first-hand experience with the dialect.

Informant Information

The informant is my mother. She lived in Gangwon province all her early life and is familiar with the dialect as well as its differences to standard Korean. When asked about the dialect of the province as a whole, I was told that “most people [there] don’t speak dialects anymore”, and that the province had to be treated as “two separate regions” because of that; the “western region” Yeongseo (영서) and the “eastern region” Yeongdong (영동). The western region historically had a lot of interaction with the capital, so the dialect mostly resembles the Seoul dialect “although some words are spoken with a different intonation”, as seen from the difference between the words for older brother in the two dialects (형/성, hyung/sung). Speakers from the Yeongdong area tend to sound “more different” than their Yeongseo counterparts made evident by the difference in the standard/dialect words for tail (꼬리/꼬랭이, ggori/ggoraengi).

Analysis

As a form of folk speech, the dialect of Gangwon province is in a tenuous spot, since non-Seoul dialects tend to be looked down upon and lack the official support to maintain its folk group: the speakers. Another factor in the decrease of folk speech across Korea (and not just the province) is that “increased movement between the province and the capital” and the government’s lack of support for dialects results in a decrease in Gangwon’s youth populations speaking the local dialect. The informant’s dialect is a significant example for its uncertainty: with its identity becoming less clear as its speakers adjust to life in the capital, will it survive or die out? While the answer is currently unclear, more disdain towards Korean dialects may result in these forms of folk speech being gone for good.

Military Service and Folk Music

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 42
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: Seoul, South Korea
Performance Date: March 16th 2016
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Informant Information

The informant is my uncle: He often told stories to my brother, my cousins and myself during holiday gatherings, and I heard it mentioned before that he served in the Korean marines. Curious, I decided to ask him about it, and he told me about things he found most memorable: the constant risk of injury (“if the bamboo [spear] splits into the visor, the wearer is probably already blind”), occasional beatings issued by superiors and how he was “counting his days”. He told me that by the time he was almost done with his service, he found himself remembering a song his superiors sang when they were almost done with their services; the song is shown below in the original Korean, revised Romanization version as well as the translated version:

Korean

나 태어나 이 강산에 의경이 되어
꽃 피고 눈 내리기 어언 이십육개월
무엇을 배웠느냐 무엇을 하였느냐
데모막다 돌맞아서 병가가면 그만이지
아, 다시 못 올 흘러간 내 청춘
방석복에 실려간 좆같은 군대생활

Phonetic (romanized using Revised Romanization)

Na tae-eo-na i gang-san-e ui-gyeong-i doe-eo
Kkot pi-go nun nae-ri-gi eo-eon i-sib-ryuk-gae-wol
Mu-eos-eul bae-won-neu-nya mu-eos-eul ha-yeon-neu-nya
De-mo-mak-da dol-ma-ja-seo byeong-ga-ga-myeon geu-man-i-ji
A, da-si mot ol heul-leo-gan nae cheong-chun
Bang-seok-bo-ge sil-lyeo-gan jot-ga-teun gun-dae-saeng-hwal

Translation

I was born and became a conscripted policeman in this land
Flowers blossomed and snow has fallen for twenty-six months already
Regardless of what I learned or did
I’ll get hit by a rock in a riot and be on sick leave
Oh, my springtime of youth has already flown
This fucking military life, stretchered away in protective gear

Analysis

Once reaching adulthood, a South Korean man has to serve in the Korean military unless dealing with debilitating conditions – it is very much considered a rite of passage. In the military, the man may deal with instances of hazing on top of the military training, while the thought that his life is being wasted (especially as certain privileged people and women can spend time to have fun or better themselves instead with no drawbacks) is very much an existential crisis on its own. The Korean military police is particularly notorious for their hazing practices and perpetual danger in duty as it is often tasked with stopping violent, politically extremist riots. In such an environment started the singing of songs – defeatist songs lamenting their wasting of time and their lives.

The lyrical structure and the instrumental of the song itself was taken from the Korean song “An Old Soldier’s Song” written by Kim Min-gi and performed by Yang Hee-eun. Therefore, the example provided above is a variant of this song, but the narrator has changed from an old professional soldier who sacrificed his youth for future happiness to a nihilistic youth who laments the wasting away of his ‘best days’. As a musical piece performed by a member of a folk group (with military service being the common interest), the subject highlights the flexibility of folklore in that folklore can be repurposed to suit new folk groups and practices.

A link for the original song is shown below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckuiScOH3iM