“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.
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.
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.
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.
Informant: “So for Sylvester, in every major city, and pretty much all of Germany, you are allowed to shoot fireworks at the turn of midnight. And this day is a holiday, but some shops are open like, until 6:00pm. And then people will go to their houses, or friend’s houses, or even parties. But usually first, the evening starts with a dinner. Like, not just with your close family, but it is with your friends too.”
Interviewer: “And why do they call New Years ‘Sylvester’?”
Informant: “I have no idea, I mean I never thought of it as ‘New Years’. It is just the name we gave it. I think it is some religious guy… Oh! And on Sylvester everyone always watches Dinner for One. It is one of these things where you have a certain tradition, and you don’t really know where it comes from but you grow up with. And Dinner for One is a common thing for Sylvester because the butler in the show keeps saying ‘same procedure as every year?’ So he is referring to the routine, and that some things don’t change even though the year changes. I don’t know, it’s just one of these traditions that you don’t know where they come from, but you grew up with them so you don’t really question them. So yeah.”
Analysis:
Much like in America, Germany celebrates New Years by partaking in special events such as the shooting of fireworks at midnight and spending time with friends and family. On New Years it is important to spend time with friends and family because it is a way of expressing to them that you appreciate and love them, and you want them to be in your life at the start of the new year. This indicates that you are wishing your relationship with them to extend into the new year, and many years afterwards. The shooting off of fireworks is a sign of celebration, much like it is in America. However a difference I noticed when I celebrated New Years with my informant was that in Germany people are allowed to fire the big fireworks, but where I am from in America only city workers are allowed to shoot off the big fireworks because it is considered too dangerous for other people to do. Even though firework regulations change based on where you are in America, the fact that there are not as many regulations on fireworks in Germany indicates that the German government probably trusts it’s people with the explosives more than the American government does with their people.
In Germany, ‘New Years’ is referred to as Sylvester. My informant was not sure as to why this is, which indicates that the tradition of calling ‘New Years’ ‘Sylvester’ comes from old, long forgotten beliefs. In my research I discovered that the term ‘Sylvester’ is of Isreali origin because that is what the Isreali people call the New Years celebration. Sylvester was the name of the ‘saint’ and Roman Pope who was in charge of the Catholic church during the 4th century. Pope Sylvester is best known for convincing Constantine to forbid Jews from living in Jerusalem. All Catholic ‘Saints’ are awarded the day Christians celebrate and pay tribute to that Saint’s memory, and December 31 is Saint Sylvester Day. Due to the anti-Semitic tone of this legend, perhaps one of the reasons why my informant was not aware of the true origin of Saint Sylvester Day was because Germany has been very careful to distance themselves from their negative history in WWII and the Holocaust.
The final Sylvester tradition my informant mentioned was watching Dinner for One every year. This english film is played every hour on television during Sylvester and it is very popular in Germany because as my informant pointed out, it reflects on the idea that even though things are changing there are some things in life that will always remain. Some people feel anxiety towards change, therefore I can understand how in this idea that there is “the same procedure every year” is reassuring to those fearful of change. The film is especially popular among the wealthier German class because there are jokes in the film that only the wealthy would understand, such as the knowledge of serving the right kind of alcoholic drink with the food. This comes from upper class dining beliefs that for example, port is an after dinner drink therefore it should be served with the final dish, fruit. The film is also in English, which is a language that only educated German people would understand.
My informant was born in 1992 Hamburg, Germany. She studied at USC from 2010-2011 before moving to Brussels, Belgium to study international policy planning for her undergraduate degree. She lives part time in Brussels, Belgium and part time in her hometown Hamburg, Germany.
