Category Archives: Folk speech

People in desperate situations will do anything to survive

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 63
Occupation: Government worker
Residence: Newport Beach, CA
Performance Date: 4/25/15
Primary Language: Tagalog
Language: English

This Filipino proverb reflects the harshness that life can bring and how that people when cornered will do anything to get out of that situation. This rings with my informant’s upbringing she and her family were raised in the lower-middle class of Tondo, Philippines, where people were more opportunistic and are willing to do anything to survive. My informant got this saying from her mother, who had to raise six children by herself and also work to feed them. My informant and her siblings also had to spend their childhoods helping her in order to keep the family income.

To me, the proverb reflects a harsh and distrustful upbringing where people can turn on each other fast when situations become worse. I feel that this proverb is not unique to her family however because of all the people who may also encounter this similar situation and it is more like a general proverb for life.

Walang hirap walang ligaya

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 63
Occupation: Government worker
Residence: Newport Beach, CA
Performance Date: 4/24/15
Primary Language: Tagalog
Language: English

Translation: No pain no game

Analysis

My informant says this was something her mom would often say to her while growing up. Due to a lack of affluence while growing up, her mom had to make a living in the city working several jobs while caring for six children. Her mom’s and dad’s family was also not very rich, so they had to toil in order to get to where they were in the world. This was a similar experience for my informant and her brothers, who had to balance both school and work in order to encounter success after graduation. Eventually, most of them were able to move to America and make a living there, which shows how hard work can pay off at the end of the day.

I believe the proverb has an important place in this family, as it recalls the youth of my informant and also reflects the past which the family had to overcome in order to reach success in America.  It also comments on the belief of the American Dream, and how social mobility can positively benefit people through hard work.

Oppa!

Nationality: Israeli
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Israel
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: Hebrew
Language: English

Yon is a student at USC who I am close friends with. He is originally from Israel, and this is his first year in America. He speaks with a thick Israeli accent, and jumped at the opportunity to share his culture’s folklore with me.

 

Performance: While I was interviewing Yon, he dropped his keys and exclaimed “Oppa!” casually as he picked them back up. What is that? I asked. “Oppa is the word when we say it… whenever something doesn’t like go…as planned. its like Oppa! Oppa! Oppa! It’s like woooah.”

Is it like happy..? Or like…?

“It’s not negative…But its not happy. It’s like something you say when you’re startled. You say Oppa. Oppa.”

 

Response: This piece of folk speech came naturally in conversation while I was interviewing Yon. He dropped his keys and said “oppa” under his breath. I asked him what that was and he didn’t understand what I was referring to, but lit up when he realized he was explaining his own little swear. Oppa has no definition that is set in stone in Hebrew, and it more of a folk exclamation similar to whoops.

Wey

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Mexico
Performance Date: April 30, 2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Bernie is a very close friend of mine from Mexico. Bernie left Mexico for the first time to study at USC. He loves to talk about his culture, and speaks with a thick Mexican accent.

 

 

Performance: “So “wey” is basically a term that you refer to…its like bro or like “man” “buddy” “wey” “guy”…. it’s only to guys you cannot say it to girls. It’s basically a slang word used by young people, you would not see older people…it’s very coloquial. you would not see older people using it. it’s just an easy way, instead of calling somebody by their name you say “wey” “wey come here” “wey do this” “wey.” It’s just a way to start a conversation or refer to a person that is really uh part of the Mexican culture. And it’s how we communicate.”

 

 

Response: I’ve taken 5 years of spanish in high-school and college and have never heard of “wey.” It seems to be a term like “dude” but can only be used between two young males who are of Mexican descent. It seems to have wide aplications but Bernie stressed that you would never say it to an older person or to a girl.

Children, do you love each other?

Nationality: American
Age: 55
Occupation: business litigator
Residence: Illinois, USA
Performance Date: April 12, 2015
Primary Language: English

So, it goes like this:

“Children do you love each other?

Are you always kind and true?

Do you always do to others

as you would have them do to you?

Little birdies in their next agree,

tis a shameful sight to see,

Children of one family,

fall out, and chide and fight.”

And Sister Lorita got it… I think she must have gotten it from her own family. But she was a good friend of my moms and after she died, she came over and visited a lot. She worked at Mercy Hospital, they were really close… she ran the alcoholism unit at Mercy, but anyway she always said it whenever we’d argue about something.

Informant 2, age 22, son of Informant 1:

“Children do you love each other?” I remember mom saying it. But not Sister Lorita. Just like whenever we were fighting.

context: In a one on one conversation with informant 1, my father, I asked him if he remembered all the words to this poem that we often heard when we were fighting.

thoughts: Informant 2, did not remember all of it, probably because for him and our family, my mom, who got it from Sister Lorita, only needed to say the first few lines and we would stop what we were doing or just complain about the poem.

Sister Lorita was a great friend to my dad’s family after his mom died and so visiting her was a big part of Informant 2’s and my childhood, though he may not remember.