Don’t call
me pachee/Carlos Pueblo
Mr.Yong , as
the cruise young workers call him, is my brother-in-law from
New York
City and just turns 55 and retire from the city. He was from
Malaysia
originally and spoke Malay language well. I have just learned
that Malay
is a common language of Malaysia and Indonesia, as a matter
of fact,
both of them are the same race. One night he told me that he was
very
impressed of the good manor and good humorous character of the
Indonesia
workers. A bartender greets him as pachee, means father’s big
Brother. He
could not take it and said please don’t call me pachee, call me
ah bond, ah
bond no d sound is an elder brother. He
is not quite used to
aging and I
don’t blame him. He is still quite young with his out looking
except a
little bit of gray. The cruise has trained the young workers politeness
and respect
to the customers. They always call you sir or madam and always
speak softly
with low voice, even to each other.
Since then,
I always remind the young workers call me pachee and point him
say call him
ah bond. Everybody understands and laughs. I ran into a Taiwanese
lady guide
on a Frankfurt street and went to a Malaysian restaurant for dinner.
She knew ah
bond’s meaning yet forgot pachee, so I asked a next table guest
About pachee
and got the answer. Two months later, we were on the Sun for
An Alaskan
cruise back to back, I mentioned the pachee story to another
Indonesian
worker and the story passed around. One day at lunch, a pretty
worker
inside the counter called me pachee and I responded no problem
and pointed
Amy that the problem was her sister’s husband. We became very
closed with
the young workers.
Actually, a
young worker comes to explain it to me. In Indonesia, big uncle is
not pachee
yet with another greeting which I don’t have a pen to write it
down.
Because that young bartender knows Yong is from Malaysia and calls
him pachee
and makes him not quite comfortable. You don’t really know old
age is right
in the next corner until you see your pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment