Category Archives: Proverbs

Be the Pebble

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 21, 2014
Primary Language: English

The informant is a Junior at USC majoring in Choral music.  He is from Santa Cruz California and says that he loves using proverbs in his every day life.

 

“Be the pebble, let the water wash over you.  Don’t be the boulder”.

 

The informant first heard this proverb from his parents and said that he uses it frequently.

Analysis:

This proverb was collected in a natural performance.  The informant said this proverb to me when I was complaining about how stressed I was.  For him, it is advice to someone who is stressed, telling them to let it go and not let things worry them.  For the informant it also means that if you worry about things, it just makes everything worse.

This proverb’s use of the imagery of flowing water to symbolize letting things go, living life and not worrying has similarities to phrases such as “go with the flow” and saying something is “water under the bridge”.  Differently from these other phrases, this collected proverb also incorporates the idea that the water of life, so to say, will “wash” over you.  The use of this word implies that the process of struggle is a cleansing one from which people emerge smoother and better, much like the pebbles along beaches or in stream beds are polished by the flow of the water.

This proverb could also be used to advise someone to not stand in opposition to the way things are going, although when the informant used this proverb it did not have this meaning.  Boulders stand against the water and as a result are broken down.  In this aspect, this proverbs holds close ties to the proverb “go with the flow”, as both use water imagery to give advice against combating the current situation and letting things happen as they will.

Gray hair

Nationality: American
Age: 26
Occupation: Student/Opera Singer
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant is a graduate student studying Vocal Arts/Opera at USC.  She is originally from New York City and just recently moved to Los Angeles.

“If you pluck a gray hair, three will grow back in its place.”

The informant first heard this proverb in New York City and says that, while living there, she heard it a lot.  She shared this proverb when one of our mutual friends was complaining about her gray hairs and wondering whether she should pull them out or not.  After sharing this proverb, several other of our friends (from various parts of the country) chimed in saying that it was bad to pull out gray hairs.  Perhaps this proverb has turned into a folk belief or vice versa.  More information would be necessary to determine this.

Analysis:

This proverb could mean several things: 1. Embrace your grayness, growing old isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  2. If you worry about getting old, you are worrying about things you have no control over instead of living your life 3. A warning against vanity  4. (best interpretation, in my opinion) Worrying about gray hairs causes you stress, connecting this proverb to the folk belief that stress causes gray hairs, therefore worrying about (ie. plucking) your gray hairs will cause more gray hairs to grow

“A quien le quede el guante” – Ecuadorian Proverb

Nationality: Ecuadorian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/27/14
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English, Italian

The informant is a 19 year old Ecuadorian student studying Architecture at the University of Southern California.  Her family is from Quito, Ecuador.  English is her second language.  She shared this proverb in Spanish and then translated and explained it in English.

“A quien le quede el guante/ que se lo chante”

“To who the glove fits, he should embrace it”

“It means that whatever you’re saying and there’s a person that it’s, like it’s referring to that person, they should just accept it.”

 

Analysis:

This proverb is similar to the American proverb:  “If the shoe fits, wear it” and the British proverb, “If the cap fits, wear it”.  All of these idioms are used in the same way: to tell a person to accept something, usually criticism, although I have heard it used for compliments as well, if it actually applies to them.

This proverb creates an acceptable and elegant way to tell someone to examine who they are and to gracefuly take accurate compliments and criticisms as they come.

“Aunque la mona…” Ecuadorian porverb

Nationality: Ecuadorian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/27/2015
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English, Italian

The informant is a 19 year old Ecuadorian student studying Architecture at the University of Southern California.  Her family is from Quito, Ecuador.  English is her second language.  She shared this proverb in Spanish and then translated and explained it in English.

“Aunque la mona se viste de seda, mona queda”

“Even if a ‘girl monkey’ dresses with silk, it’s still a monkey ”

“It means it doesn’t matter how you depict yourself, you’re still going to be the same person – like it doesn’t matter how you dress or whatever, you’re still going to be the same.”

 

Analysis:

This proverb means that even a change in outward appearance will not change the person inside.  The word “monkey” may have been used in this case as a poetic substitute for humans because of monkeys’ similarities to humans and because monkeys are quiet common in Ecuador.  This proverb seems to say that a monkey trying to make themselves more human by dressing up is still a monkey.  In other words, humans cannot change who or what they are by changing their appearances.

“Actions vs. Words”

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Salesman
Residence: Sacramento, CA
Performance Date: 11 March 2015
Primary Language: English

Text:

Your actions speak so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying.

Background:

This is something I picked up from a bunch of different management prep talks. It gets mentioned almost every event. Depending on who’s talking they have their own favorite version but I like this one the best because it’s short and sweet. It basically just reminds me that I can talk all I want but until I actually do something it doesn’t really mean anything what my intentions are. It’s all just bullshit until I show what I’m made of through my actions.

Context:

I say this to people like when [our friend] Sean talks about his music for fuckin ever about the EP he’s working on and the gigs he wants to book and his social media or whatever, and eventually I just can’t take it anymore and I say it to like jog some fuckin sense into him cuz I can’t take it anymore. He just talks a lot of shit, and I want to remind him “Hey, you haven’t done anything yet, so it doesn’t matter. Plans are great, but you haven’t accomplished anything, and if you don’t like that, then for fuck’s sake, DO SOMETHING about it.”

My Thoughts:

This really speaks to the culture of the CUTCO company that you always want to get the sale now, today, right away. We believe that if you don’t walk out of a house with a sale, you failed and you need to figure out how to do better next time. We hate when people talk about doing something like “oh, I almost got the sale” because at the end of the day, “almost” means nothing in our company.