Category Archives: Queens Janks

Janks collected in Queens, NYC surrounding the 2016 Queens International exhibit at the Queens Museum

043016004

Spanish:
English: If you don’t stop talking, the cake is going to collapse.
collected: Corona Plaza, Queens (04-30-2016)
origin: A way to tell someone to shut up. There is a Hispanic superstition that if you talk too much while baking it cake, it won’t rise properly. He originally heard this in NYC.

043016003

Spanish:
English: Why are you dancing like you’re killing roaches?
collected: Corona Plaza, Queens (04-30-2016)
origin: Something you say to someone who can’t dance. Originally heard this from his grandmother in Ecuador.

043016002

Spanish:
English: If you don’t steal, you won’t succeed in life
collected: Corona Plaza, Queens (04-30-2016)
origin: Something he heard growing up in Mexico City (D.F.). Commonly used among friends, when someone asks to borrow something.

043016001

Spanish:
English: The hunger is united with the need to eat
collected: Corona Plaza, Queens (04-30-2016)
origin: She is Colombian and was often told this by her grandparents. It is a common saying in her family, used by her grandparents, parents, herself, and now her children. It is a way of insulting two people who are very compatible.

042816009

Spanish: huevón
English: literally “egg” but means “sloth”
collected: Ridgewood, Queens (04-28-2016)
origin: common way to call someone lazy, meaning “sloth” – which is very insulting because sloth is one of the seven deadly sins. Commonly used in his family, which is half Ecuadorian and half Colombian.

042816008

Göttscheabarisch (German dialect):
English: you drunk devil
collected: Ridgewood, Queens (04-28-2016)
origin: Heard this growing up from friends and family in the Gottscheer community in Ridgewood, Queens

042816007

Göttscheabarisch (German dialect): Du lump
English: you lazy rascal
collected: Ridgewood, Queens (04-28-2016)
origin: A way to call someone lazy. Heard this growing up from friends and family in the Gottscheer community in Ridgewood, Queens

042816006

Göttscheabarisch (German dialect):
English: literally translates to “you can like me,” but is used as a friendly way to say “go fuck yourself”
collected: Ridgewood, Queens (04-28-2016)
origin: heard this growing up from friends and family in the Gottscheer community in Ridgewood, Queens

042816005

Greek:
English: Hey how you doing brick? How’s everything man? I love you too brick!
collected: Astoria, Queens (04-28-2016)
origin: very common Greek saying, said to someone who is in their own world and acting totally outside of their environment.