My office is, ironically enough, not only a wonderful workspace but also home to numerous craft supplies. When we have visitors, they often bring some kind of "kid-friendly" items which, if they aren't distributed, end up in the top drawer of my file cabinet (this is also true of bags of 1000 rubber bands). When staff bring their kids to work, I'll often dig through the drawer to find something that might be of interest. Yes, I am shamelessly trying to buy the affections of Cambodian children through gifts. So far, it's worked well.
Most recently, one of our accountants brought her daughter to work. I gave the little girl a coloring book and some markers. We did the cute "Cambodian introduction" thing where she had to say hello and call me "Ming," which is kind of a cross between "Aunt" and "Miss." It's a sign of respect, and I, too, use it when I'm talking to someone older than a sister but younger than a grandma.
Today I was telling our staff about how I met a bunch of people at a training and they had trouble with my name (it's a typical problem...my name ends up pronounced somewhere between "cat" and "cake"). The accountant suddenly looked at me and said, "Oh!" It seems that when I went through the Cambodian introduction process with her little girl, I told her that my name sounded like "cat." I then tossed in the Khmer word for "cat" (chmah, which sounds close to the word for "name," which is chmooah).
Apparently, when the youngster was recently asked who gave her the coloring book at the office, the little girl replied, "Ming Meow."
Which is, I think, much better than Catwoman.
2 comments:
At least you're Auntie Kitty. In Chinese, the words for mother, horse, and marijuana are remarkably similar...so you could end up REALLY offending someone's mother...or horse for that matter.
I guess if your dad is a grandpa to a dog, you can be Ming Meow!
Post a Comment