Tag Archives: proverb

El que come y canta loco se levanta

Text: El que come y canta loco se levanta

Translation: He who eats and sings rises a madman.

Informant’s Interpretation: The informant shared that for her family, it meant that you should not do two things at the same time, and they should focus on the food on their plate rather than the words in their mouth. 

Context: The informant’s father would say this to her and her siblings growing up to get them to stop talking more than they were eating at the table. The informant, who is Mexican American, grew up in Texas near the border in the 60s/70s. 
Analysis: The phrase itself, “El que come y canta loco se levanta”, uses exaggeration (“rises a madman”) to create a memorable and slightly humorous warning to the children hearing it. Like many proverbs, its literal meaning is less important than its applied meaning, which in this case is about maintaining focus and proper behavior at the table. The informant’s father adapts the proverb as a form of disciplinary speech, using it to reinforce expectations around mealtime etiquette. I believe it is reflective of larger trends of parents wanting their children to eat at the table rather than goof off and let their food get cold.

天时地利人和

Folklore:
天时地利人和 (Tiān shí dì lì rén hé)

Context:
The informant is a Chinese American student studying business at USC. She encountered the saying in situations where when asking for advice from an elder or someone in a more successful position, they would give this saying. She found it used in response to questions like “why are you successful?” She roughly translated it to “The right person at the right place at the right time with the right amount of luck or fortune.” Noting how many things needed to come together in order for the favorable situation to happen.

Analysis:
The folklore saying is used in interactions between elders and youth about success, wisdom, or favorable situations. The saying places credit of the situation on multiple factors, most outside of the person’s control while also celebrating the work and opportunity it took to get there. It may be used to brush off credit from the speaker or the inverse.

Hammer and Nail

Text

Interviewee: In a summer camp I attended while in elementary school, my teacher told us about this proverb: “If you are holding a hammer, everything you see is a nail.” In Chinese: “手里拿着锤子，看什么都像钉子.”

Hammer and nail are a perfect duo. However, when a hammer becomes the only tool you reach for, it distorts perception. In this proverb, the message is that if you always hold a hammer and see everything as a nail, you will forever be seeing this world through a single, fixed way of thinking.

It was a simple, concrete way for my teacher to educate me about not being hindered by my preconceived notions—my “hammer”—when seeing the world. It’s about teaching kids to have an open mind and think outside of the box sometimes.

Context:

My interviewee first encountered this proverb in China, shared by a teacher when she was attending a summer camp as an elementary school student.

Analysis:

This proverb is an educative proverb that teaches the audience about cognitive bias using the metaphor of a hammer and nail. It is vernacular because, while this was shared in a summer camp by a teacher, this proverb wasn’t in the textbook, and neither was it formally written down. It’s essentially a metaphor about having an open mindset: it warns against the human tendency to fit problems to our existing solutions rather than seeking solutions suited to the actual problem.

Genre analysis:
Metaphorical structure: This proverb’s metaphorical structure—using a concrete, well-known physical object to metaphorically render an abstract lesson—is characteristic of a proverb.

Sentence structure / phoenetics: In addition, the sentence structure in Chinese—each clause having the exact same number of Chinese characters—makes this proverb rhyme and easier to remember and tell from a structural/phonetic perspective.

“For beauty, you must suffer.”

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Text:
When A was in high school and had pimples, her mother would pop them for her. Whenever A complained that it hurt, her mother would respond, “For beauty, you must suffer.”

Context:
The informant, A, recalls hearing this phrase frequently from her mother, especially during moments involving personal grooming that were physically uncomfortable, like popping pimples or plucking eyebrows. While A understood that her mother meant it lightheartedly, it also reflected a deeper, often unspoken expectation around beauty standards. A noted that this phrase extended beyond skincare. For example, her mother would say it when discussing the discomfort of wearing heels or shapewear like Spanx.

Analysis:
This phrase highlights how societal beauty standards, specifcally for women, are often tied to discomfort or even pain. The expectation is that beauty requires sacrifice, whether it’s enduring physical discomfort or investing significant time and effort. It reinforces the idea that beauty is an achievement rather than an inherent trait, one that must be worked for and maintained. The fact that the phrase was passed down from mother to daughter goes to show how these standards are often perpetuated within families, sometimes without conscious reflection. Ultimately, the saying reflects a broader cultural narrative about the price of fitting into conventional ideals of beauty.

Minor Genres: Proverbs – Salt

  1. Text: “Δεν γνωρίζεις πραγματικά κάποιον μέχρι να φας ένα καράβι αλάτι μαζί του” or “You don’t truly know someone until you’ve eaten a boatload of salt with them”.
  2. Informants Context: In my village where I was originally born, we were not educated. We had very little compared to what people have today. I was born and raised in the village of Nestane, in the province of Arcadia, Greece. Because we had so little available to us, our lives became dependent on how we could trust one another within our small community. There was no one who could help us besides the people who were in the community. We had no technology back then, there weren’t big cities near by and travelling to the ones that were farther away was very expensive. We had very little money. So again, the only support we had around us was through the people we knew. This is why Greeks are so close to their family – when you come from humble means, your blood is the only thing you can trust and rely on. So, when you meet someone new who isn’t your family, you can’t know whether to trust them or not. It’s not possible to truly know someone until you’ve spent a large amount of time with them. That’s what the saying means. You don’t know the true character of a person until you’ve shared enough meals with them that you can fill all the salt from those meals combined into a filled boat. This was a common saying that emerged out of my village, often spoken by people around us. It was my father who first gave me this advice. He always intended to make me aware of how two-faced people could be. Be very careful about who you let into your house. Once you have shared meals with a person though, you will have “passed through salt” with them. This is all one needs to know that they have become like family.
  3. Collectors Interpretation: This is not only a succinct and revealing proverb, it is also a ritual of initiation. Anyone who participates and upholds this mantra must first go through a long and intimate relationship with another Greek before they know they can truly trust each other. It reflects how Greek culture hinges around concepts of loyalty, perception and trust. It’s typical that Greeks will have said they have, “passed through salt” together once they’ve known each other long enough. This means that the two people have known each other long enough to pass this initiation alongside each other and become true friends. This proverb also relates to personal concepts of trust and trauma that the informant may have lingering from their childhood of humble means. As this is the proverb of a village, it comes with great authority – it is the voice and agreed upon value of an entire community.

Fields

AGE: 87

Date_of_performance: May 9, 2025

Language: Greek

Nationality: Greek/Canadian

Occupation: Retired

Primary Language: Greek

Residence: Canada