"Chinese tourists" in my home!

After dropping off my parents and brother at O’Hare this afternoon, it hit me that time always seems to fly when I’m off from work.  My family arrived just before the Thanksgiving weekend and it’s been a relaxing and productive time together.

Whenever my techie brother is here, he upgrades all of our computer systems and makes sure my family is in top technical form.   He outfitted my daughter in a new system altogether and then declared that she better “operate 25% smarter”!

He’s the reason my parents are so technically savvy.  They are never without their laptops and iPhones.  In fact, they’re the only senior citizens I know who can teach others about the best apps.  Although they communicate best in Chinese.

"I can understand Chinese?"

My mom kept talking to our dog in Chinese and now she insists that he understands.  Nutty is happy to play with anyone.  He’d likely learn some Swahili just to get a treat.

Both of my children study French.  And since my husband and children speak very little Chinese, it’s always a mishmash of two languages whenever my parents visit.  My father’s English is pretty good but his hearing is limited. And my mother’s hearing is great but her English is limited.  Since her English is better than most people’s Chinese, she’s a good sport when we have fun with her often-amusing broken English.

While listening to classical music in the car, my mother asked “What tiffany this one?”  I bet Mozart would understand what she meant.  After I brushed my daughter’s hair, she felt it and declared, “Wow, that as soft as soup!”   Our favorite is something she uttered while we were visiting them in California.  I was about to use one of their laptops when she steered me towards another one and said, “That laptop no juicy.”  Mother knows best.

Anchoring in HK, where I learned Chinese swear words!

When I worked at TVB News in Hong Kong, I anchored the English-language newscasts but the newsroom operated mainly in Chinese. Boy, did I learn a lot of new Chinese words that my parents never taught me.  In fact, the terms are so crude I can’t even write about them here.  How interesting to experience the same newsroom culture but in a different language.

These days, “crap” is my crutch pseudo-swear word but I am clearly overusing it.  I heard my tween daughter use it casually last week. Crap!

So today my marketing pal, Jeff Willinger, told me to try a made-up swear word that he picked up: “shinnamon”.  WTF kind of word is “shinnamon”?!?!  I told him to try, “Shut the front door!”  But why are we trying to rely on alternatives?  The actual words are implied.

Let’s all try to refrain from using such language.  And don’t curse me out for trying!