Tag Archives: proverbs

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Context:

M is a student at USC. She told me about a common proverb about doctors that is considered a joke in her family because her parents are doctors.

Text:

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Analysis:

This proverb traditionally means that eating apples or being healthy by eating nutritious food will help prevent unwanted doctor’s visits caused by poor health or illness. On the other hand, since my informant’s parents are doctors, she thinks this common proverb is more of a joke because it suggests that she can avoid her parents by eating apples. Avoiding parents is something all teenagers can relate to, and it appears that children of doctors do as well.

Proverb: All that Glitters is not Gold

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Cook
Residence: Renton WA
Performance Date: 2/22/23
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

Text

The informant didn’t initially understand what a proverb was, prompting me to provide an explanation. From there, it only took them a brief moment for one to come to mind.

They stumbled through their recitation, “I have one- well, is it a proverb? I’m sure you heard it before.”

“What is it?”

“All that glitters is not gold.” They laughed, “I heard it from Spongebob. Didn’t really get it until later though.”

Context

RELATIONSHIP –
The proverb isn’t something that the informant uses often, but they say that it came to mind because it’s standard, genuinely good advice.

WHERE THEY HEARD IT –
The informant first heard this proverb from the Nickelodeon T.V. show Spongebob Squarepants. After coming across it there, they looked to their family for an explanation on its meaning.

USE OR INTERPRETATION –
The informant interprets this proverb as “When someone thinks something is good, but it isn’t.” They gave the example of a person getting a dream job they heard was great, only for it to be terrible for them and not what they thought it would be. “It’s something that was precious to them, but actually turned out to be their downfall.”

Analysis

“All that glitters is not gold” seems like the type of proverb that’s common to know, but not as common to say or hear someone say (at least, in recent times), lending it the status of “an oldie, but a goodie.” The proverb elicits an immediate visual component where the audience compares a mental image of a nondescript “thing” glittering and a piece of gold. The inherent value of gold stands out and serves to contrast the glittering object. By essentially stating “just because it glitters, that doesn’t mean it’s gold,” the audience is immediately warned of their interest in the stand-in for the glittering object. It warrants caution and prevents a leap of faith into engaging with something just the slightest bit glittery.

“Trip seven times, get up eight times” – Japanese Proverb

Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 2/19
Primary Language: Japanese

1. Text

Main piece: Informant shared a Japanese proverb “七転び八起き”.

Original script: 七転び八起き

Phonetic: Nana korobi hachi oki

Transliteration: Seven falls eight get ups

Translation: Trip seven times, get up eight times.

Definition: Persevering, not giving up till succeeding; the ups and downs of life

2. Context

Relationship to the piece:

Informant:

“I read it in a book”

Meaning:

Informant:

“I never really understood what it was”

“I think it’s perseverance though”

3. Analysis

This Japanese proverb seems to say that life is falling seven times and getting up eight times. Even though you keep falling, if you keep getting up, you will end up on your feet. It also suggests that life is full of ups and downs, and is not easy. One must keep failing then trying again to stay afloat. It does have a positive connotation as the number of falls is less than the number of getting up. This outlook of accepting the struggle yet remaining hopeful is one way that Japanese people live their life. Although the meaning seems similar, this proverb is very different from its likes in the western culture like “failure is the father of success”, where failure is suggested to lead to success. Instead, the Japanese proverb tells the people that life is hard, and one must accept that and persevere, where getting up doesn’t mean success but does mean that one can keep on continuing forward. This shows how the Japanese proverb is more realistic and practical, while the North American proverb is more idealistic. This could be traced further back to the power dynamic differences between Japan and the US since the US is a superpower whereas Japan was defeated during WWII and has been forced to remove its military, renounce their emperor, and even be under control of the US for a period of time. As a superpower, the US has the confidence to use more idealistic proverbs while Japan after WWII has a much more stagnant and cynical outlook which leads to more realistic and pragmatic proverbs.

A Hair Past a Freckle

Text:

“When someone asks you the time and you don’t know what time it is because you’re not wearing a watch or don’t have your phone, my family always goes ‘Oh, it’s a hair past a freckle’ or ‘A freckle past a hair’. You use the two interchangeably just depending on whatever mood you’re in.”

Context:

OA is a 21-year-old American student at USC. She grew up in Washington. I asked her about any proverbs she knew of or sayings that were common to her. This proverb is used as a joke. “It’s something my dad did because his dad did it.”

Interpretation:

Family folklore is special because it identifies people who are in the group (your family), and those who are out of the group easily. Things that might not seem funny to outsiders could be incredibly funny to your family, or vice versa. These things can develop from specific moments, or their origins can be more fluid. My friend mentioned that this was something she says to her friends now as well, which shows that even folklore that originates as family-specific has the capacity to grow beyond families and enter into a more widespread usage. This specific proverb seems to be related to “it’s time for you to get a watch,” as it pokes fun at the person for not knowing the time and highlights our society’s reliance on time. Timeliness is very important in the United States, whereas in other cultures being on time isn’t as important. So, when someone doesn’t have a watch or isn’t aware of what time it is, people make fun of them because they should know what time it is in a society where time is everything. 

Did you see the camel? No you did not!

Nationality: Persian
Age: 27
Occupation: Associate Banker
Residence: Laguna Niguel
Performance Date: 3/15/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Persian

Context:

This is a proverb that is commonly used among the family and friends of my informant. My informant is a coworker from my job. She immigrated to the United States from Tehran, the capital of Iran, when she was 16 years old and has a lot of family here that she enjoys continuing her traditions with.

  • “šotor didi? nadidi,” or “شتر دیدی؟ ندیدی”
    • Transliterated proverb:
      • “Did you see the camel? No you did not!”
    • Full translation: This maxim is essentially indicating that if you see something that is obvious that you were not meant or supposed to see, then you should act as if you didn’t see it. Put in other words, its true meaning is along the lines of, “you see nothing, you hear nothing.”
    • Explanation by my coworker: “So lets say you’re trying to hide someone from knowing something that they see or hear. We use a camel in this maxim because it’s a large animal and easy to spot, obvious basically, just like something that you may have just seen or heard. So basically, you obviously saw or heard something that is as obvious as a camel, but you’re making the concious decision to hide that information.”

Thoughts: I thought it was really interesting that a camel was used as an obvious sight. It shines light on the regional uniqueness of the maxim and perhaps illustrates that the saying goes far back in history. In modernity, there a lot more large, obvious things that could be used to replace the role of the camel in the maxim, yet it persists because of its place in the history of the region.