Category Archives: Proverbs

“Salud Chindon”

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, Texas
Performance Date: 4/6/19
Primary Language: English
Language: Italian, Spanish

Main piece: Proverb

“Salud Chindon”

Translation:

“Good health for a hundred years”

Background Information:

Why does the informant know this piece?

Her family is Italian American and uses this proverb.

Where did the informant learn this piece?

She learned it from her family who uses the proverb when drinking or making toasts.

What does it mean to them?

It means to always keep your health as a priority and to wish good fortune and health to your loved ones and friends.

Context: This is an Italian American proverb that descends from the Italian word “Salute”, which means well being, and the Italian phrase “cent anno” which means one hundred years. It is a phrase that Italian Americans have blended the original Italian words to both sound differently and a slightly different mean than the direct translations. This proverb was collected in person at the informant’s dorm in Dallas, Texas.

Analysis: I find this proverb to be interesting because it is an example of a language being “Americanised.” It is an example of Italian Americans still connecting with their Italian culture but creating their own folklore for their community. 

 

“Al povero mancano tante cose, all’avaro tutte”

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/22/19
Primary Language: English
Language: Italian

Main piece: Proverb

“Al povero mancano tante cose, all’avaro tutte”

Translation:

“the poor man is lacking many things, the greedy man all”

Background Information:

Informant is Italian and lived a portion of his life in Milan, Italy. He learned it through spending time with his father, he would tell him this when he asked for money. To my informant, it means that a greedy man will never be satisfied and truly happy. But it is also humorous to him that when he would ask his father for money as a kid that this was his joking response.

Context: This is an Italian proverb that my informant learned from his father while living in Italy. It is a proverb that warns against being greedy. It translates directly to English while still keeping its intended meaning. I received this proverb from my informant in person in his dorm. 

Analysis: I enjoyed learning this proverb from my informant for a few reasons. One is that it is something he learned while actually living in Italy as a kid and another is that I find it heartening that his father taught him this lesson about greed by using this proverb in a funny yet meaningful way. This another example of how proverbs are an important part of Italian folklore. 

 

“If your horse isn’t cool, don’t be a fool… leave your helmet on.” Horse Riding Proverb

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Residence: Washington DC
Performance Date: 4-22-19
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: “If your horse isn’t cool, don’t be a fool… leave your helmet on.”

 

Background: GR grew up with a long history of horse riding, and that is one of her most favorite things to do when she has the free time and is able to make it to the barn. GR says that this proverb is incredibly important in terms of rider safety, especially when she was younger, the rhyming nature of it helped her to remember it very vividly. Essentially, GR says that this means that you are never supposed to take care of yourself and start getting ready to finish unless your horse is okay. Sometimes if its the end of a ride and you are getting ready to leave and pack things up, there are times when the horse may either be spooked or acting strange, and its important to never take off your gear and helmet before the horse is okay. GR said not only is it a respect thing for the horse, to make sure that the animal is okay and that you help to calm them down if something is wrong, but it is also a safety concern for the rider. If the horse does something out of character or unexpected, and it hits you or knocks you off and you are not wearing a helmet, you could get seriously injured. GR also said that its important to look out for the horse first too because throughout the event or the training you are asking a lot of the horse, and if you are not listening to it and ignoring its needs, it may also be less responsive the next time you go to ride the horse.

 

Context of the Performance: GR told me this custom, while we were talking about the things we would do in our free time, and what types of hobbies we like to do. Since GR is from an area where horse riding is far more popular than in California, GR was able to inform me about some of the expectancies that come with riding horses.

 

Analysis: Seeing as how it would appear that horse riding is something that people in this community generally tend to learn from a young age, it makes total sense that this proverb would exist as a way to help remind people of the dangers of working with these animals. Horses are incredibly powerful creatures, and the ramifications of being unsafe while riding them could be very severe and I believe that this serves to function as a cautionary reminder to these riders. Additionally, it seems that another main part of this is the respect factor that is involved with the horses. GR mentioned that a huge part of this saying is to serve as a reminder to respect your horse, and make sure that they are okay.The horse riding community puts a huge emphasis on respecting your animal, and it is interesting to see this as I feel generally in American culture there is certainly less of an importance placed on the well being of animals. We generally tend to see them as less important, and so in parts of the country that do not usually interact with animals besides house pets, there is far less importance placed on their well being.

Proverb “Birds of a Feather, Flock Together”

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 21
Residence: South Korea
Performance Date: 4-17-19
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

Main Piece: “The birds of a feather flock together. This is big in Korea, because there were a lot of celebrities who had drug problems and would be seen with bad people. Koreans are judging them, and saying that nasty low class people who just got rich still hang out with low class people, but all the smart people hang out together. Family from good background will tend to hang out with similar background family.”

 

Background: MP grew up in South Korea, and he said that he recalls hearing this proverb the most frequently of any other proverb. He also mentioned that when he got into the United States, he heard this very saying from other people in his friend group and he found it interesting that this saying was as meaningful in our culture as his. He recalls that his parents would tell him this to remind him of the importance of you who surround yourself with. In Korea he said it was very important to make sure that not only you were honorable and did good deeds, but that the people who you spent time with had similar motivations and character traits. He saw this proverb as a way to remind him that he needed to choose his friends wisely, so that he don’t get roped into bad deeds. He also mentions that the idea of “friends” is very selective in Korea, so there are far more close knit groups of friends in Korea than what he found in America. Additionally he said that when choosing his friends at USC, he was very cautious about who he trusted and who he wanted to be friends with as a result of that proverb’s meaning.

 

Context of Performance: MP told me this proverb while we were at my apartment discussing the different cultural stories and proverbs we remember when we were kids. As I grew up in America, it was interesting to hear a proverb that I too was familiar with and had seemingly no different elements to it. MP was also interested when hearing that I was familiar with it, and he seemed to really enjoy the fact that there was a level of connection between us, even though we are from two very different parts of the world.

 

Analysis: Hearing this proverb form MP was super interesting to me because I was expecting to hear stories and proverbs that were entirely different from my culture. However, I remember hearing this very same proverb, verbatim, when I was a child as well. I too believe that this proverb is stressing the value of choosing your friends wisely and making sure that you do not sacrifice your own values for the sake of making friends. It is very interesting to see that while South Korea and America are two very distinct cultures, this one proverb seems to have been able to cross that cultural barrier seemingly unscathed. I believe that it is a testament to the fact that both cultures have a very heavy emphasis on the importance of the image you present to people, and the company you choose to keep is a direct reflection of that image. Similar to the proverb “Show me your friends, and I’ll tell you who you are,” this one seems to emphasis that no matter how good of an image you put out, your friends and your company speak far louder than you do.

Chinese Proverb About the Farmer and the Rabbit

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: College student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 02/05/2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Context: The informant, a 19-year-old Chinese-American college student, shared this proverb with me on the Lunar New Year. We were discussing how her parents raised her to embrace her Chinese-American culture. She explained how the lessons she was taught as a child still impact her outlook on life today.

Text:

Informant: I know an old Chinese proverb. Um… it’s from, I think, a famous philosopher. Basically, I learned it from my parents and then again in Chinese school. I can’t remember the Chinese translation, but basically the gist of the proverb, or what the proverb literally means is… um “waiting by the tree for the rabbit.” And the story behind it, because all Chinese proverbs kind of have like a story behind them, um… is that there’s this farmer who um basically lived off his land and sold his crops and sort of lived that way. But one day, while he was plowing his land, um a rabbit ran into a tree and died. So, the man got his dinner that day and he had the bright idea of basically… he decided, “Screw farming! I’m just going to wait by this tree for more rabbits to crash into the tree, so I can eat, you know, rabbits for the rest of my life.” And then, he waited for a really really long time and, no surprise to anyone else, no rabbits crashed into that tree again. And, it’s kind of confusing, but basically the proverb means that you can’t wait for things to fall in your lap. Like all good things that are like worthwhile um… take a lot of work and a lot of dedication. And if you sit around and wait for that rabbit to come, it will never come.

Informant’s relation to the item: The proverb is important to the informant because it was taught to her by her parents and then again in Chinese school as a young child. Thus, the proverb has both significance within her family and also cultural/educational significance. Additionally, the proverb, which stresses the important of hard work, continues to impact the informant’s work ethic today.

Interpretation: This particular proverb does not make much sense to a listener who does not have much knowledge of Chinese culture. Without the context of the folk tale surrounding it, the proverb seems like an insignificant phrase. However, knowing the story as well as the importance of hard work and industriousness within many Asian cultures, the proverb clearly holds a lot more weight. This is a common occurrence when analyzing proverbs, which are usually very hard to translate across cultures due to language and cultural barriers.