So as I was making a slow turn down the street today, I passed a woman pushing an umbrella-covered ice cream cart. She called out to me with an expectant look on her face: "hello lady, you eat me?" It was the best thing I'd heard all day.
I love how words are a constant source of amusement in cross-cultural interactions.
Like how the Khmer word for "husband" = "b'day," which is the French word for the butt-sprayer that is found attached to toilets across much of world. I laughed like a school-girl when I first learned this.
Or that I regularly ask in Khmer for "fried people" or "fried mouth" at restaurants rather than "fried chicken" because the Khmer words "manoo," "mow-at," and "mow-an" are similar and I always confuse them. The horrified look on people's faces, followed by laughter, is the same every time.
A bit like how Cambodians often swap the English words "chicken" for "kitchen," and "snake" for "snack" ... sounding something like "she's in the chicken eating a snake."
I especially like that "freckle" directly translates in Khmer as "fly poop." Yes!
And that I get to call men "boo" and women "bong" on a daily basis, as these are words used in place of "you" in reference to men or women your age or a bit older. One of the interns at work came up with the hybrid words "boo-slice" and "bong-slice," although I don't think these would really fly in America. They make funny t-shirts in my head.
I love how words are a constant source of amusement in cross-cultural interactions.
Like how the Khmer word for "husband" = "b'day," which is the French word for the butt-sprayer that is found attached to toilets across much of world. I laughed like a school-girl when I first learned this.
Or that I regularly ask in Khmer for "fried people" or "fried mouth" at restaurants rather than "fried chicken" because the Khmer words "manoo," "mow-at," and "mow-an" are similar and I always confuse them. The horrified look on people's faces, followed by laughter, is the same every time.
A bit like how Cambodians often swap the English words "chicken" for "kitchen," and "snake" for "snack" ... sounding something like "she's in the chicken eating a snake."
I especially like that "freckle" directly translates in Khmer as "fly poop." Yes!
And that I get to call men "boo" and women "bong" on a daily basis, as these are words used in place of "you" in reference to men or women your age or a bit older. One of the interns at work came up with the hybrid words "boo-slice" and "bong-slice," although I don't think these would really fly in America. They make funny t-shirts in my head.
The creativity of two languages colliding makes me smile. Kind of like this pizza....
Which, like the lady and her ice cream, I decided not to eat. Maybe next time...
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