Thursday, January 31, 2008

Scarred Child

So I found out recently from one of my Chinese friends that PK - not the letters themselves, but sound made by pronouncing the two letters together in English - actually sounds like a Chinese word or expression (I'm assuming Cantonese since my friend is from HK) that essentially means to fall on one's face. Apparently it's used to tell someone off, like "go take a short walk off a long pier" (or, more appropriately, "go *bleep* yourself).

At any rate, I got a jolly good laugh out of it. It just goes to show that you never know if something that sounds so perfectly innocent in English will turn out to be incredibly insulting (or maybe even humorous!) in another language.

I'm sure when PK is old enough, he or she will get a good laugh out of it. Or perhaps when PK is in his/her teens, he/she will be completely embarrassed by the fact that

a) I kept a blog on the WWW sharing details of my pregnancy with whomever wants to read about it
b) I referred to him/her as PK, which may get him/her made fun of by his/her friends

Wow, I'm getting tired of referring to PK as he/she, him/her. Can I just refer to PK as "it" until I know the sex? Maybe that will add to more embarrassment later in life too...

Or maybe if I'm lucky, PK will inherit my sense of humor, which, in my humble opinion, is by far the world's greatest sense of humor. :)

1 comment:

Mr. Shiny and New said...

IMO it's ok to refer to it as "it". I know someone who refers to his "pk" as "the critter". No names to protect the innocent. :)