Korean saying: Monkeys Falling from Trees

Nationality: Korean
Primary Language: Korean
Age: 50
Occupation: Country Branch Manager
Residence: Seoul, South Korea
Performance Date: 16 February 2024

Tags: monkeys, trees, falling, humility, Korean, proverb, saying

Text:

“원숭이도 나무에서 떨어진다.”

Literal: ‘A monkey can fall from a tree.’

Meaning: ‘Everyone, even experts, can make mistakes, so you have to be humble and careful in whatever you are doing.’

Context:

R is a born and raised South Korean. This is one of the sayings R taught me when growing up in Korea, along with a plethora of other proverbs and lessons. Apparently he had heard it from his father before him and so on, and it’s a pretty common Korean saying. The first time R said this to me was when I had a clarinet concert coming up and was feeling a bit overconfident due to the apparent ease of the music, in which R said this to make me feel calm and make sure I still practiced caution.

Analysis:

Korean culture puts humility and the importance of being modest in very high regard, to the point where boasting about one’s abilities and accepting compliments is seen as rude in most social settings. I find it interesting how monkeys are the first animals to be brought to mind within the context of this saying, as monkeys aren’t often synonymous to Korean culture. Obviously we have monkeys in Korea, but they aren’t brought up as much compared to other Asian countries and such.

Taiwanese Joke: Double Naming and Chickens

Nationality: Taiwanese
Primary Language: Mandarin
Age: 50
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Taipei, Taiwan
Performance Date: 16 February 2024

Tags: joke, Taiwanese, chickens, double meaning, toilet humor

Text:

There was once a man who visited Taiwan for the first time to improve his conversational Mandarin speaking skills. He had heard from his Taiwanese friends that Taiwanese people often like to ‘double say’ (repeat) nouns- for example, ‘喝水水’ = ‘drink water water’, ‘吃飯飯’ = eat food food, ‘大狗狗‘ = ‘big dog dog’.

To attempt to fit in to local customs, the man wanted to try ‘double saying’ a noun. As he was thinking, he saw a small chicken crossing a road. He pointed at the small chicken and loudly declared:

“小雞雞！” (“small chicken chicken”)

After he said this, every local around him burst out laughing. Confused and embarrassed, he hastily called his Taiwanese friend and recounted the experience, demanding an explanation. The Taiwanese friend burst out laughing and explained:

” ‘雞雞’ (chicken chicken) means ‘penis’. “

Context:

T is a born and raised Taiwanese local, and apparently this is a pretty popular (though crass) joke to tell children, which she did in my youth when we ate chicken one day. Growing up learning Mandarin from T, I realized we both subconsciously also used the ‘double noun’ habit, though it’s mainly used for children learning Mandarin growing up as it can seem cute in a way, in a singsong-ish manner.

Analysis:

Thinking back on the joke, there may or may not be a connection to the English interpretation of the word ‘cock’ as both a word relating to ‘chicken’ and ‘penis’, so maybe dick jokes can help connect the world.

Taiwanese saying: Pigs for the Slaughter

Nationality: Taiwanese
Primary Language: Mandarin
Age: 50
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Taipei, Taiwan
Performance Date: 16 February 2024

Tags: Taiwanese, pigs, slaughter, rich, fame, price

Text:

“人怕出名豬怕肥“

Literal: “People fear fame like pigs fear slaughter.”

Meaning: ‘Fame has a price.’

Context:

T is a born and raised Taiwanese local, and this is one of the sayings she grew up with. She actually didn’t teach me this until recently, after she had seen an article on Facebook about a celebrity committing suicide due to scandals and such.

Analysis:

Pork is an important part of Taiwanese cuisine, to the point where there have even been controversies and multiple news headlines about the quality and transportation of pork within Taiwan’s international trading scene. The saying itself reminds me of our class/discussion where we talked about the differences in how people view fame and wealth in Ethiopia versus America, in which Ethiopia has sayings that denote skepticism and warnings towards wealth while America praises wealth and fortune as something people have to work hard for.

Counter Proverb to “An eye for an eye”

Text: “Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Context: 

The informant learned this saying when he was 6, overhearing his father’s conversation with another adult. He later learned that the “eye for an eye” part came from the Hammurabi Code. To him the quote meant that retaliation against someone who’s wronged you doesn’t make your own situation any better. 

Analysis:

Proverbs are used to give advice, and this phrase is an example of that. It subverts the well-known saying “an eye for an eye”, which prioritizes absolute justice. This Proverb says that mentality and idea of how to respond to someone wronging you is ultimately harmful to everyone even if it makes things just in an individual instance. It uses the vernacular authority of the saying and expands its scope while presenting an opposite perspective and worldview.

Recess Game: Redondo Beach “kickball” War

Text: “Living in Redondo beach, we would play Kickball all the time but it’s not like ‘actual’ kickball where you go base to base – it was like kickball war. There would be a huge field and people would line up like a war, and everyone has a ball and they all drop kick it at each other. I used to picture it like the battles in the American revolution. It was like cannon fighting but they’d call it kickball. You could use any ball, basketball and footballs included, people were playing it every day.”

Context:  “It was a man’s game, the girls would usually play house. Mostly older kids played and there was respect given to the younger kids who could ‘hang’ with them.”

The game was intense and the informant said her participation ended in a concussion from being hit in the head with a basketball.

Analysis: Children’s games are often a way for them to experiment with the adult world. In this game, the kids are exploring the idea of warfare. The informant was reminded of the initial battles of the American Revolution, a style of war the elementary and middle-school kids would have been learning about in their classrooms; two lines opposing each other launching volleys with minimal ability to aim mirrors.

The game also expressed, or possibly played a part in determining some of the social roles between the students as well. Given the intensity of the game, being a consistent part of it signified who someone was, and for a girl or younger student it helped to align them with the toughest boys.