Right eye and Left eye twitch

Allegedly our Moroccan family has this thing passed down in the family where the right eye twitches, it is a good sign, but if our left eye twitches it is a bad sign.

Informant is born in Morocco…

Analysis: My cousin’s had his left eye twitch and freaked out so he chose not to believe in it…Therefore, I think it could lead into paranoia but, personally, it has passed down to me (I am American), and it predicted numerous things. For example my left eye twitched and then I had an argument with my friend. But it has to also follow with a gut instinct because sometimes it twitches and barely anything happens and perhaps thats just a physiological response rather than a response of intuition. It has to be connected to a twinge of intuition. As I am writing this my right eye twitches so it gives me the suspicion that I am correct in this analysis.

Lanzi-ism proverbs

A proverb a calculus BC teacher used to say was “up a creek without a buck to buy a paddle”. Students called these proverbs “Lanzi-isms, because the professor’s last name is Lanzi-Sheaman. If one says “Lanzi-ism” to anyone who took Calc BC at the high school (in San Diego), they would know it’s one of the strange proverbs she used.

Informant from San Diego that took the Calc class

Boston saying – “Wiched Pissah”

People in Boston, particularly those with a strong Boston Accent will say “Wicked Pissah”, which is Wicked Pisser but the Boston Accent doesn’t really pronounce the “r’s” so it becomes Pisa. Basically it just means that something is really awesome. You can say it about a person or a thing. It’s also somewhat of a joke at this point because it’s a cliche Boston Accent thing to say. So it’s ironic to say but also not ironic in another sense.

Informant is from Boston.

Wordplay In Korea

Context

In Korea, young Koreans in their tweens and 20s tend to abbreviate long words like Iced Americano and Starbucks to “Ah ah” and “Supuck.” Those who do this tend to do so to show that they are young and keeping with the trends. Therefore, it is easy to tell who is trendy and in touch with Korean culture through the way they speak. Usually nouns are shortened.

Analysis

This phenomenon reminds me of similar things in popular culture in the U.S. as well. For example, a self proclaimed fan of Five Nights At Freddy’s or Identity V would be called out if they didn’t know what the abbreviated forms of the names were: FNAF and IDV respectively. In this way, dialect is able to draw a hard line between those within and outside of groups in the know. 

No Crowmouthing yourself

Context

“No Crowmouthing yourself” means to not say things like car crash, suicide, cardiac arrest, especially in correlation to anyone in the family. “Joking things like “I’m going to die” is definitely going to get me scolded by my grandparents even in a joking way, and they’d call that “crow mouthing.” big nono, not safe, and they’d give a whole lecture about how to be better in a well being since… they had it rough in their life,” reports my informant. Her parents and grandparents lived through many different wars, and thus they believe that dangerous things like swimming in the river, riding a roller coaster, or speaking of things related to death put your wellbeing at risk. In China, this proverb is used quite often and is a big theme in Chinese culture. Younger people tend to say it to themselves to scold themselves. 

An example of this proverb being used genuinely goes as follows:

Person 1: “Oh god, I have a flight this afternoon, I hope the plane won’t crash haha.”

Person 2: “Stop! Do not crowmouth yourself, saying plane crash is such a bad thing.”

However, later this proverb has evolved into a dark joke, akin to saying “Haha imma kill myself.” An example of it being used in this way goes as follows:

Person 1: “I’m going to die because of this assignment”

Person 2: “Haha, crow mouthing yourself, huh?”

As my informant says, “it’s a bit morbid but silly funny.” She believes because society has become more safe, “the past concerns of war, hunger, limits and so on don’t exist in this modern time in China,” and thus a proverb that may have held great weight in the past doesn’t scare the youth today.

Analysis

I find it interesting how proverbs can change from being held with great meaning to being used in a sarcastic joke. Perhaps a combination of a change in environment, like my informant said, and the fact that proverbs are typically widespread and are a collective knowledge have a hand in this evolution of the ways certain proverbs are used now.