Tag Archives: proverb

Korean Proverb

Nationality: Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: korea
Performance Date: April 23
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

There is a proverb in Korea that is “티끌모아태산”

Original script: 티끌모아태산

Phonetic (Roman) script: Tikkeul moa tae-san

Transliteration: Dust collection becomes a mountain

Full translation: A penny saved is a penny earned (Though not a direct translation, it has a similar meaning of this English proverbial phrase)

Background:

My informant is a 20-year-old friend from Korea, identified as Y. She says it means that if you don’t give up and continue to work towards your goal, you will become successful and achieve your goals. She remembers this proverb because she thinks it’s applicable to her own life since she tends to give up very easily.

Thoughts:

I agree with Y about this proverb. I also tend to give up very easily when something doesn’t go the way that I planned. This proverb reminds us that we shouldn’t give up because every small effort will eventually accumulate to something bigger and through hardwork and effort, we will succeed. This applies to my own life because when I was a high school senior and applying to colleges, I didn’t get into a lot of schools that I wanted to. I had gone to a school that I didn’t really want to go to but found that it wasn’t for me. But I didn’t want to go through the college application process again and didn’t want to transfer. It was my mom who reminded me that I should at least put it the effort because it doesn’t hurt to try. The application process was a hard one, with many nights spent crying due to an existential crisis. I felt like giving up, but I pushed myself to write the best application I could and successfully transferred to USC.

Korean Proverb

Nationality: Korean
Age: 23
Occupation: student
Residence: Korea
Performance Date: April 20
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

There is a proverb in Korea that is “서당개 삼년이면 풍월을 읊는다”

Original script: 서당개 삼년이면 풍월을 읊는다

Phonetic (Roman) script: Seodang-gae samnyeon-imyeon pungwol-eul eulpneunda.

Transliteration: A dog at school will know words three years later

Full translation: Practice makes perfect

Background: My informant is a 23-year-old friend from Korea, identified as H. She interprets it to anyone with the guidance of an expert or in an environment of study, they will be able to learn something and become successful. She remembers this proverb because it relates to her own life. H says after she became a college student, she has realized the importance of self-directed teaching to fully understand concepts and has often felt jealousy of those who are able to understand concepts faster. Her experience in college has reminded her of this proverb.

Thoughts:

I agree with this proverb because I think it applies to any life situation. If you keep on practicing, you will succeed. Whether it is solving a math equation, learning an instrument or driving a car, you will succeed if you keep practicing. You will eventually be able to solve that very complicated math problem, play a difficult classic piece and get your driver’s license. It applies to every part of life and it reminds me that you shouldn’t give up.

“No fool like an old fool”

Nationality: Sanderson
Age: 95
Occupation: Unemployed
Residence: Aberdeen, Scotland
Performance Date: April 11, 2020
Primary Language: English

MAIN PIECE

“No fool like an old fool”

“We say this kinda thing when people get a bit ruckus and they’ve always been that way.  The way me and my friends used it was when somebody was  doing wrong and we’d talk about how they would get their [karma] one day.”

BACKGROUND

This informant, MS, comes from Aberdeen, Scotland and has lived there for all of her life, except for a few years she spent in London.   She’s from the silent generation and has grown up with many Scottish sayings that she’s heard and seen gone out of style.  Although she says this one isn’t as popular anymore, it is still said among the older communities.

CONTEXT

I invited MS, my great grandmother, to talk with me after a family reunion zoom call.  A few days later, we got together and we live streamed a rerun of Strictly Come Dancing over zoom and during the commercial breaks, we talked over some  folklore from her life in Scotland, specifically from her childhood in Aberdeen.

THOUGHTS

It’s great to hear such a prominent saying about old fools, because in the United States, I believe we tend to hear about young fools more.  I believe that this statement is definitely an insult of sorts, as well as a great proverb that is meant to teach  people that the biggest kind of fool there is is one who does not learn from their mistakes.

Help Your Fellow Neighbor

Nationality: Spanish
Age: 58
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Residence: Spain
Primary Language: Spanish

Context: TC is a 58 year old man from Barcelona, Spain. He is a close friend of my father. He came to visit my dad and I took the opportunity to ask him about any folklore he knew. He remembers a story he was told as a child regarding a proverb about helping your fellow neighbor. We sat on the poarch while we all drank beer and listened. 

TC: In a barn there was once a mouse who was looking for help. The poor mouse had realized that the farmer had brought in traps to catch him. He was scared and uhh he went to the chicken and told her, “ chicken the farmer has brought a mouse trap, I’m scared I’ll get trapped”, and the chicken replied “ so ? What do I have to do in this ? go away.” The mouse left saddened at the fact the chicken wouldn’t do anything to help. He then went to the lamb and said, “lamb can you help get rid of this mouse trap the farmer has brought?” and the lamb replied, “ I don’t have time for this, leave now.” The mouse left and went to the cow and said, “ hey cow uhh I’m scared the farmer bought a trap and I don’t know what to do,” the cow replied “ I could care less.” So the mouse left to his little home… sad that no one would help. Later that night, while the farmer and his wife were sleeping, they heard the mouse trap go off. The farmer told his wife, “you hear that woman something has landed in the trap, go on and see what it is.” The farmer’s wife got up and went to see. When she gets close to see….. it was a snake that had landed the trap. As the snake moved like crazy trying to free itself it somehow reached the lady and bit her. So then the farmer realizes his wife isn’t back and gets up to look for her…. And finds her on the floor and says, “ oh my god, it was a snake and it has biting my wife… What will I do ?! I don’t have much money to take her to the doctor” He then thinks and remembers he has heard that chicken soup is good to counter venom snakes…. He then rushes  to the barn and gets the chicken and makes soup out of her. 

YM: Wooow and bye bye chicken hahahah

TC: Yeah ! hahaha anyways he gave his wife the soup but she didn’t get better… so then he thinks, “ I have to take her to the doctor but I have no money.. Alright I will take the lamb and sell it on the way so I have money to pay the doctor.” However, his wife didn’t make it, it was too late, and the venom had done its job. Now that his wife was dead he didn’t have any money for the funeral. He goes on to say, “ I will sell my cow to a slaughter house to give my wife a proper tomb.” The cow dies and he buries his wife.

YM: oh my god!

TC: YUP! And the mouse who was asking everyone for help remained alive. That is why you should  help your fellow neighbor when in need…. Because if you don’t, everyone could end up losing… if there’s one, two, four, six people here, and something goes bad for one, something goes bad for everyone. That’s why the proverb goes “ Cuando ayudas a los demás, te ayudas a ti mismo.” 

Main piece:  “Cuando ayudas a los demás, te ayudas a ti mismo” 

Translation:  When you help others, you help yourself

Background info: TC heard this story from his uncle growing up. He thinks the story is a great representation of what happens when you don’t help your fellow neighbor or those in need. The story stuck with him throughout the years and now tells it to his children. 

Analysis: This was a great story to explain this proverb. I agree with TC and this proverb when it comes to helping your fellow neighbor. I do believe that helping others can create good karma that will later come back and help you in some form. Or that when you care for someone and you help them you also help yourself. For example, parents who help their kids go to college and get a degree to have brighter futures so that maybe one day their kids can look after them when they’re old. Not only that but when you help others, it makes you a better person, opening your heart to be more empathetic and compassionate. There’s even a study that was done, when you help someone you get the “helper’s high.” This happens because when you help others your brain secretes and releases “feel good” chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin. This proverb definitely shaped TC’s life and it taught him to have good morals. Proverbs are meant to give us advice on what is right and what is wrong and how we should behave or do things. 

Meaning Behind The Proverb “I Don’t Have to Outrun The Bear”

Nationality: American
Age: 67
Occupation: Retired Physician
Performance Date: 4/22/20
Primary Language: English
Language: Yiddish

Main Piece: 

Original Proverb: “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.” 

Meaning as told by my informant:

“So, the story goes like this. Two men are hiking in the woods, and they see a bear. The bear is really mad, so they start running to get away. The first man says ‘how are we going to outrun this bear?’ and the other guy goes ‘I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.’ (laughs) Because think about it. If the bear gets one guy, he’s not going to keep running to get the other. In life, it means that you don’t need to be the best, you just need to be better. I used to like telling you that when you were taking tests that were graded on a curve. If you got a question wrong, but everyone else got two wrong, you didn’t have a perfect score, but you got a hundred percent. You didn’t outrun the bear, but you did outrun the other people.” 

Background: 

My informant is my father, who grew up on a chicken farm in South New Jersey. His parents were holocaust survivors who immigrated from Poland, so growing up, he generally spoke Yiddish at home and English at school. Everyone always calls him the “walking joke book,” and he speaks more in proverbs (in both languages) than he does in normal sentences. While he doesn’t remember where he learned this proverb, he assumes it was at school, since he learned it in English. He says he likes this proverb, and all proverbs, because they’re an easy way to evoke a whole story and moral from just a few words. In addition, he just thinks they’re funny and that the world would be a better place if everyone laughed more. 

Context: 

While I’m not in quarantine with my informant/father, I do call him every day, and this piece was collected during a routine call. 

Thoughts: 

This was likely the first proverb I ever learned (I don’t technically remember learning it), and it evokes a very fond sense of nostalgia for me. I think the beauty of this proverb is its fairly dark sense of humor. The saying itself implies that someone is going to die, but an audience’s response is always laughter. It’s this weird sense of optimism because although you know someone is going to get mauled by a bear, your takeaway is that you’re going to be okay. My analysis is that depending on how you look at life, someone’s success almost always means someone else’s failure. For example, if I got into USC, that inherently means someone else didn’t. This can be even more awkward when you take into account how Americans value being humble and putting others before yourself. Oftentimes, Americans remedy discomfort with humor, which I believe is what makes this proverb transcendent. This proverb is not a joke, yet it masks as one because we choose to hide our self serving agendas under funny sayings. Referencing what my father said about curved tests, he never told me ‘wreck the curve so everyone else does worse than you,’ he just said ‘you don’t have to outrun the bear.’ Much like running from a bear, American humor is a self defense mechanism.