Category Archives: Folk speech

Until Lions Write Their Own History, the Tale of the Hunt Will Always Glorify the Hunter

Nationality: African American
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: March 23, 2015
Primary Language: English

AU is a student at USC majoring in Anthropology with a minor in Journalism. She will begin her graduate studies next year at USC Dornsife. She is also a co-worker at the United University Church [UUC] working at the front desk.

 

 

Until lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

 

 

This proverb is very prominent in Africa. My informant was very passionate about its meaning. She extrapolated on how it was representative of colonialism and that it is still an ongoing struggle today seeing as a majority of countries have been established under the yoke of Europe. For her this proverb is a way of saying that things, particularly the written record, will not change until the people who arose from colonialism seek to change their history.

 

I felt that I agreed with some of the points she made concerning the view that many countries who were established by European nations view their creators. There are many who see them as the “motherland” which causes conflict with others who do not hold the same views.

 

 

For a different version of this proverb please see the Introduction to Frederick Douglass’s book by Wendell Phillips

 

That’s What She Said

Nationality: Scottish
Age: 24
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

Informant: My informant is a close friend who I have known for many years. He is a 23-year-old college student and has lived his whole life in Orange County, California. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he attends the University of Southern California and comes from a prominently Scottish heritage.

I actually collected this piece by somewhat of an accident. As I was talking to my informant and further explaining folklore after we had been talking for a little while, I mentioned to him that it could be something that allows for variation and multiplicity. To make it clearer, I gave him the example of a joke I knew and then said, “see you have this element in the joke but if I wanted to I could, take it out and put this in”. To which he replied, “that’s what she said”.

This joke is very common and it is very widely used. I asked my informant where he first heard this joke and he said, “I have no idea”. Which is understandable because a joke like this is said so much it is really hard to figure out where you originally learned it. I then went on to ask him about the context of the joke and where he usually uses it. He replied, “well definitely not around my mom, that would be weird, but it’s really dumb to be honest, you just use it anytime someone says something kind of sexual and then just interrupt them with that’s what she said. I have also heard people that began to use it way out of context, that kind of became a thing for a while, like someone would just say something normal like “hey pass me the green beans” and someone shouts out that’s what she said. Really stupid but kind of funny I guess”.

This joke is interesting because unlike a lot of jokes, this joke never really made its way to written form because it is situational. You have to look at a situation and apply it, and in this sense it can be used a lot and it was used a lot by many people until it became lame to use it. I think this style of joke also shows a type of obsession with sexuality in our culture. Also it is somewhat taboo to talk about sex so this is another way that people find a way around saying something actually sexual when they put it into the context of a joke.

Work to Live Rather than Live to Work

Nationality: yugoslavian, spanish, croatian
Age: 53
Occupation: real estate agent
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is my mother. She is 53 years old and is Spanish, Croatian, and Yugoslavian. She was born and raised in Florida, but keeps up many of her ancestors’ traditions from these countries.

My mother really enjoys the culture in Spain. She has traveled there on a few occasions and loves to soak up the culture. She learns a lot about the country every time she goes and she gets to see the places that her ancestors came from. I asked her if she had any Spanish proverbs that she has learned from her parents or her grandparents.

Informant: “I remember one proverb or motto that was brought up many times. It basically goes, “We (Spanish people) work to live, we do not live to work”. Spanish people live much simpler lives than people do in many places in the world, especially the United States. I first heard this saying or proverb from my grandmother. My mother was raised in the United States and although she was raised by my grandmother, my mother has seemingly adopted a much more American view on work and never really used this proverb with me. I can understand why people say it in Spain, but it doesn’t really apply in America. Here it is the exact opposite, everything is a rat race to the top to see who can make the most money and although it isn’t a good thing, if you don’t keep up, you will get left behind”.

Analysis: I thought this proverb was interesting because it says something about an entire country and their views on work ethic. It also shows a nice contrast between America and a country like Spain. The ideals in each country are pretty much the exact opposite. Where in America, “the early bird gets the worm”, and other proverbs like this promote the idea that if you work harder than the guy next to you, then you will succeed past him and make more money. It seems as if every country has proverbs like these. These proverbs not only shift a way of thinking but they tend to shape an entire country’s perspective. People follow these proverbs and they become instilled in the way that they live and guide a way of living for people.

To See Is To Believe

Nationality: Korean
Age: 24
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: Korean

My informant is a 24-year-old foreign exchange student who was raised in South Korea his whole life.

I asked my informant if he had any proverbs that he could share with me. I was curious to see what I could learn about Korean culture by hearing his proverbs. I was surprised by the first proverb that came to his mind. He told me that this proverb is very popular in Korea and is widely used.

Informant: “The proverb is, “to see is to believe”. This is what it means in Korean, but if you translate to English it means more like, “Watching one time is better than listening 100 times. And it just means that I can tell you something 100 times and you will not understand until I actually show it to you. It also can mean to not trust the words until you see the action”.

Analysis: I thought this was really interesting because the first proverb that he told me was something that I have heard many times in America. This proverb is not limited to just Korea. It was also interesting that the Korean version is close to the English version, if not the exact same, while the translation offers a different reading. The meanings are very close but the translation seems to have a more direct connotation.

Nothing Riddle

Nationality: Lithuanian, english, russian, dutch
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 19-year-old college student who grew up in Chicago, Illinois, then moved out to California where she now attends the University of Southern California. Both her parents are from a Jewish background and her ethnicity is Dutch, Russian, Lithuanian, and English.

I asked my informant if she could provide me with any riddles. She quickly perked up and gave me the first one that came to her head which also was her favorite:

Riddle: What’s greater than god, more evil than the devil, poor people have it, rich people need it, and if you eat it you will die.

I sat and guessed a lot of ridiculous things as she smiled at me. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those answers I was not going to like, and low and behold I was right.

Informant: “Do you give up? The answer is nothing. Nothing is greater than god, nothing is more evil than the devil, rich people need nothing, poor people have nothing, and if you eat nothing you will die”

I was not very pleased with the answer, but I think this is the reason of the riddle. It is the same idea behind young children telling riddles. They have an answer to something that they know you will most likely not guess. This knowledge of some unknown gives them a sense of power over the older adult that they are talking to and this creates an element of humor for children.

Informant: “I learned it a long time ago, probably when I was in middle school. Like anything else, I learned it from a friend and then went on to stump all of my friends who then probably went on to stump their friends. I definitely told it to my parents at some point and got a lot of enjoyment out of fooling them”.

Riddles such as this one are considered humorous in some ways because the answer is not apparent. The unknown answer creates this humor and the big reveal of the answer to the unexpected guesser acts almost as a punch line to a joke.