Verbal Folklore

Title: Kahoy mang babad sa tubig, kapag nadarang sa apoy sapilitang magdirikit.

LR

Snapchat

11/15/20

Informant Data: LR is a current sophomore at Dartmouth College. He is on the club golf team and club’s ultimate frisbee team. LR has spent the past 19 years of his life growing up in the Philippines before attending Dartmouth College last fall. LR is very passionate about service as he has led many service outreaches and initiatives to victims of typhoons that have affected the Philippines. LR aspires to be a film producer in his future career.

Contextual Data: LR learned this proverb when he was traveling to rural provinces in the Philippines during one of his service outreaches. The main agenda for this outreach was to donate food boxes to victims of typhoon Yolanda in 2013. This was one of the biggest typhoons hitting the Philippine to this date. As he was donating food boxes to families, he was expressing his sympathy for the hardships that they all have to endure as a result of this devastating natural disaster. In response, one family member was extremely grateful for his help and shared this proverb with him. The context in which the proverb was shared was suggesting that with the right tools and support from the people around them, they will be able to survive and be okay.

Social Context: A strong typhoon hitting rural, underdeveloped provinces in the Philippines can have devastating implications for the welfare and livelihood of communities in those areas. Because of this, there are often a lot of initiatives that aim to support these people who are struggling as a result of a typhoon. With that in mind, people in these communities have grown extremely grateful for all the external support that helps them rebuild their province. Through that, they have developed many sayings that recognize and attribute the survival of their community to the aid and help they receive from people. Because of this, they have come to the understanding that with the right tools and support from people at the needed time, anything can be achieved.

Cultural Context:

In the Philippines, accounting for the high levels of poverty, poor governance, natural disasters, and many other detrimental factors, they remain to be one of the most positive and optimistic countries in the world. In many ways, this is due to how Filipinos prioritize food and faith very highly which has driven their optimistic outlook in life. This proverb is a representation of how despite facing the worst circumstances, they are confident and have faith that things will work out in the end as long as they have the right conditions. While it may seem distant, Filipinos know that the right conditions will always come to help them as they are faithful in their beliefs.

Item:

Kahoy mang babad sa tubig, kapag nadarang sa apoy sapilitang magdirikit.

Literal Translation: “Even a log soaked in water will burn if it is placed near a fire.”

 Meaning: Anything can be achieved if you yourself in the correct conditions.

Informant’s Comments: “Coming from my own room with maids to serve me food at every meal, I was slightly uncomfortable when I realized how I took for granted things the little things that can change the self-esteem and positivity of an entire province. While it was eye-opening for me, I felt really emotional and happy to see that within Filipino culture, being happy is a staple regardless of the conditions and that thinking positively is always a good thing.”

Collector’s Comments: This proverb resonates with me because there is lots of Filipino literature that is embedded in this proverb. Specifically, the words “babad”, “kapag”, “nadarang”, and “sapilitang” all root from words that allude to faith and the higher beings. Therefore the consonance of each word sounding similar and the repeating tone not only has a literal meaning to something but also preaches the words of God. This is fascinating as the Philippines is a Roman Catholic-dominated society and thus it is very interesting to see how religion through language plays a role in proverbs. Furthermore, the repetition of the two “sa” refers to the flexibility of locations for this proverb to be applicable to.

Collector: Jaime Chuidian

Verbal folklore

Title: Kung may tinanim, may aanihin

SR

Zoom

10/30/20

Informant Data: SR is a sophomore at Barnard University. She is 19 years old and was born and raised in the Philippines. Her family is an affluent Filipino family of Spanish descent.

Contextual Data: SR learned this proverb at a very young age from her grandmother. While visiting her family-owned farm, she was fascinated with the diverse array of crops that her family grew each year. After expressing interest, her grandmother told her about the proverb and how it is applicable to all she can do in life.

Social Context: SR’s family is one of the Philippine’s most affluent agriculturally dominant families. That being said, generations of her family have continued to grow the family business, providing new strands and a diverse set of crops to be harvested. SR would spend her summers on the farm, raising cattle, hanging out with friends, and interacting with the farmers. Here, she’s learned how to find her own peace of mind and strive for what she truly wants to do in life.

Cultural Context: One of the largest industries in the Philippines is agriculture. Many consider an agriculturally export-led country to be developing and inferior due to the lack of complexity of the goods they produce. Despite that, millions of rural farmers in the Philippines have shaped their livelihood from the income generated from agriculture. Thus, an agriculturally based proverb is a metaphor for the agriculturally centered Philippines. In line with the proverb, the proverb is passed on through many familial generations and has tapped into how families share values with one another. If a farmer works hard, he can put more food on the table for his/her family, and potentially expand what they can do in the agriculture sector. The rhyming consonance of “tinanim” and “aanihin” come from the evolution of the language and how groupings of similar categorized verbs sound similar – plant, harvest.

Item:

Kung may tinanim, may aanihin.

Literal Translation: If you plant something, you’ll harvest it

Meaning: Your future will be the result of the effort you put in today.

Informant’s Comments: “This proverb is something that I tend to think about on a daily basis. It’s sort of… not really about hard work but I think it reflects the outcomes of putting hard work into things that you want to do. The way I see it is that if I’m willing to put a lot of effort into perfecting a certain thing, that is like planting the seed for which will be harvested and can be a good grade or to perform well for what I was working towards … Because it’s really vague, I think it allows for different interpretations of it so that that all align with the fact that nothing of value can be achieved without dedicating time and effort to making it happen.

Collector’s Comments: This proverb has a similar structure throughout. The use of indirect rhyming and repetition of words help create fluidity in the saying. Furthermore, consonance is used in the key verbs as they are paired actions. This is a classic example of Tagalog sentence structure, pairing similar meaning verbs with the pronunciation. Because of this, it helps make phrases and sayings more and more memorable for individuals.

This proverb is very relevant to indigenous and rural Philippine culture as the agriculture industry is most dominant in those regions. There is a belief to be in touch with the crops you grow as that will represent your fortune and how well you are committed to taking care of life. The manual labor of planting and harvesting analogizes hard work and doing what needs to be done even in the hottest of conditions.

Collector: Jaime Chuidian

Verbal folklore, proverb

Title: Ang karukhaan ay hindi hadlang sa pagtatagumpay

Informant: EC

Phone Call

11/2/20

Informant Data: EC is a junior at Yale University. He is 20 years old and is the older brother of two younger siblings. EC grew up in Hong Kong for 16 years, spent a year abroad in China, and lived in the Philippines for 3 years.

Contextual Data: EC learned this proverb when he was interning at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2017. In this internship, he was working in the poverty alleviation sector where many of his co-workers firmly believed in this proverb. Hence, EC had to think outside of the box for how they can help alleviate poverty without individuals and communities believing that they are stuck in the poverty.

Social Context: The Asian Development Bank is a developmental bank focused on social and economic development throughout Asia. Headquartered in the Philippines, ADB has done many outreaches to help alleviate poverty through educational classes, volunteer events, and policy-based ways to help those living below the poverty line have more access to life-changing opportunities. As a result, ADB needs to remain optimistic for the wider Philippine community that there is a way to get out of poverty and it just needs heart, drive, hard work, and a vision.

Cultural Context: Though being trapped in the poverty cycle for over half a century, the Philippines is known for its dramatic income inequality and poverty gap. The word “karukhaan” directly means poverty and is a popular symbol of hardship in the Philippines. Despite these conditions, Filipinos remain positive in the work that they do. Through song, dance, games, and comedic jokes, Filipinos collectively can stay positive even in the darkest of conditions. This is reflected in this proverb that there is always a positive outcome ahead, it’s just a matter of finding the right way to it. When the proverb is put together, the consonance of the “h” and “a” in this proverb is a common characteristic of the Philippine language to make pronunciation more memorable and easier for individuals to say.

Item:

Tagalog: Ang karukhaan ay hindi hadlang sa pagtatagumpay.

Literal Translation: “Poverty is not an obstacle for success.”

Meaning: Where there’s a will, there will always be a way.

Informant’s Comments: “I think this proverb does two things. One, it gives a lot of insight into how the idea of poverty is perpetuated in the Philippines and how it limits the morale of communities living below the poverty line. Second, suggests that anything is achievable if one truly believes it is possible. These two strands of thinking are significant to me and my career interests the idea of achieving success applicable to anything, but it also sheds light on the fact that if one truly believes in something, it certainly is achievable as long as one is willing to put the effort in … I think this proverb also has a lot of overlap with a common Tagalog saying of “puso” which directly means “heart.” In the context in which many Filipinos use this phrase, they are implying that the best way to approach challenges is by putting your heart into what you need and want to do.”

Collector’s Comments: I personally really like this proverb. Not only is it optimistic in tackling societal issues that the entire world faces, but it also speaks about resilience and the need for one to be driven to achieving anything regardless of circumstances. While I don’t use this proverb in verbatim, I have similar proverbs that touch upon the idea of believing one can achieve anything and this proverb encapsulates just that. Whether it’s on the field or in my academics, putting your heart into all that you do is crucial for success and becoming the person you want to be. In addition to representing the idea of committing to everything you do, it also is a beacon of hope that if we help reorient the mindset of the larger impoverished community of the Philippines, we can break the cycle.

Collector: Jaime Chuidian