Tag Archives: folk speech

Proverb: Hebrew proverb

Nationality: Israel
Age: 40
Occupation: Sociology Professor
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 27, 2013
Primary Language: Hebrew
Language: English

Note: The informant is from Jerusalem

Hebrew Proverb

Proverb:

Note: Hebrew is written from right to left

Transliteration: Hatzava Tzoed Al Keyvato

Translation: The army marches on its stomach

My informant doesn’t remember where exactly he heard the proverb but he does mention that the military is a prominent part of daily life in Israel so military sayings are common. According to my informant the proverb basically means that ideas can’t sustain themselves until they become real. According him ideas need “food”, they need to link themselves to material before they become important. An example he uses to explain this is Leonardo da Vinci and his models of machines; perpetual motion machine, manufacturing machines, etc. According my informant these machines were revolutionary in hindsight but not important at the time because they served no practical purpose at the time. Those concepts became useful later when fossil fuel and independent workers became commonplace. As opposed to the Renaissance which had other energy sources and serfs.  According to him the proverb isn’t very important to him, he just knows it.

I looked up this proverb and apparently its a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte. Makes sense considering how military-centric Israel is. Although the informant stated that this proverb isn’t very important to him he still it connected to his profession. The da Vinci analogy is not directly connected to the proverb it is just something he used to explain it better. He says that the proverb is a military proverb but he applies it to the nature of scientific progress, which he is teaching a class on. It’s the same proverb but the informant took it out of its “original” context and gave it a different meaning.

“If you were dropped in the water and instead of sinking you stood up and walked on water back to the shore, the media will say that you can’t swim.”

“If you were dropped in the water and instead of sinking you stood up and walked on water back to the shore, the media will say that you can’t swim.”

No matter what you do the media will have something negative to say about it. My mom told me this saying when I was in high school because I was a well known football player and when I played in a game and I did well the next day you can count on the paper having something negative to say about me. This happens to pro athletes, famous actor and anyone who is in the spot light of the public. I don’t know where its proverb comes from but I would imagine that it comes from the United States and maybe even California. I have yet to hear this proverb anywhere else.

“Mắt to hơn bụng”

Nationality: Vietnamese-American
Age: 52
Residence: Orange, California
Performance Date: Dec 2006
Primary Language: English
Language: Vietnamese, German

“Mắt to hơn bụng”

Literal Translation: His eyes are bigger than his belly

The informant first heard this from his mother when he lived in North Vietnam when he was a young boy, about age nine or ten.  The entire family of six had been eating dinner together for some time when the informant became full.  However, he still had food left over on his plate.  His mother then said to his father, “mắt to hơn bụng” and made him finish the rest of his food.  This proverb essentially means that the person wants more than he can handle.  The informant remembers laughing when his mother said this, because he had never heard such an odd saying.  The informant remembered this proverb until now because it sounded so strange.  “How can one’s eyes be bigger than one’s stomach?” he thought to himself.  So whenever his children put more on their plates than they can eat he reminds them not to have eyes bigger than their stomach and makes them eat it all.  He thinks this proverb is very popular in Vietnam where food is scarce because it reminds people who are blessed enough to have food on the table to not be greedy and wasteful when so many people are starving in the world.

Because the Vietnamese people are starving and hungry in Vietnam, they have learned to appreciate the importance of food and how hard it is to come by.  The Vietnamese people who generally use this proverb are adults who have experienced that hunger and try to convey that experience onto their children, who generally have not experienced hunger to the most extreme yet in their lives.  When people are hungry they tend to crave different types of food.  “I want this and this and this and that,” when in reality they want it but don’t have the stomach room to eat all of it.

“Gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sang”

Nationality: Vietnamese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: Mar 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Vietnamese

“gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sang”

Literal translation: “close to ink then black, near by light then bright”

The informant learned of this Vietnamese proverb when he was in third grade of Vietnamese school, while studying for a test.  Again he heard it from his grandmother also, which is when he began to remember it clearly.  His grandmother would tell him this proverb whenever she talked about his studies and friends at school.  She would say, “gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sang,” which implies that you are what your friends make of you.  If you hang out with bad friends (ink), you will become bad (black).  If you have good friends (light), they will influence you to become good (bright).  The informant believes this piece of wisdom because he sees it come true in his cousins’ lives.  One was really wild and rebellious and when she found a boyfriend who was very religious and good, she began to change into her old, nice self.  The informant likes to retell this to his friends who are Vietnamese, often making them laugh because normally one would not randomly quote a proverb out of the blue, but he likes to lighten the mood with quirky sayings.

This is a fairly common Vietnamese proverb, often used to teach younger kids to have good friends and be influenced by good people, opposed to bad friends.  The original proverb is actually a play on words as well as a useful saying about choosing your friends wisely.  It is slightly repetitive yet different, it also uses “đen” for black and “đèn” for light, in order to emphasize the similarities between the two phrases for increased memorability.  This creates the most unique phrase that is easy to learn and easy to say.  Usually it is the older generation teaching the younger generation, as it is in the informant’s case.  However, the younger generation can also spread it to others.  I believe they spread the knowledge because somewhere deep down they have an appreciation for the Vietnamese language and because that proverb is so true and the play on words is so easy to memorize, it remains in one’s memory, even from childhood.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Nationality: Asian-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino, California
Performance Date: February 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

My informant started hearing this saying two years ago during his junior year of high school.  People were saying it everywhere, and he couldn’t help but say it too.  “Don’t worry about it” became part of his more used expressions.  Eventually, all of his friends started saying it too.  It became one of the phrases that they would know when to use.  They used it so frequently that they would answer any question or comment with “don’t worry about it.”
He uses the saying when, obviously, he doesn’t want someone to worry about something.  He replaced “it’s alright,” along with other phrases, with “don’t worry about it.”  He started saying it even when it didn’t really apply.  If a person asked him a question and he didn’t feel like answering, he would just reply with “don’t worry about it.”
He does not know what he would do without this saying.  He has begun to rely on it so much because it allows him to answer even when he doesn’t know what to say.  It’s also become special to him because it’s pretty much an inside joke between him and his friends.  “Don’t worry about it” is accepted as an appropriate way of responding his friends, but not so much with others.
I think that this phrase is just a way of avoiding things.  Some usages of it is fine, but when someone answers back with “don’t worry about it” when there should be an actual answer, I think that the person is just trying to avoid questions.  I think that my informant and his friends shouldn’t rely on this saying when they’re having conversations with other people.  Replying with “don’t worry about it” after every few questions can become quite frustrating, especially when you need answers.