Category Archives: Proverbs

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.

 

Pregnant Proverb

Nationality: African American
Age: 51
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: My mom was told by her grandmother

Original Script: ” Pregnant women, should never talk about someone else’s kids because your kid will look just like them”

Background: The proverb is saying to never call someone’s child ugly  because your child will look just like the child you talked about.

Thoughts: This old saying is just to warn women not to have a nasty attitude.

Seafood proverb

Nationality: African American
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/8/17
Primary Language: English

Informant: My grandmother who lived in Indiana and her father told her this

Original Script: “Only eat seafood in the months that have an ‘r’ in them and don’t eat seafood in the months that don’t have an ‘r’ in them.”

Background:The months that don’t have an ‘r’ in them the weather is hot so the water is not good and the months that do have an ‘r’ the weather is cooler so the water is good to eat fish.

Thoughts: I thought this was kind of silly, I believe its just an old saying to warn you about seafood because they didn’t have to technology to know when fish is contaminated.