Saturday, February 23, 2008

Have you been called "my duck"?


One day, my brother in laws got home and was greeted by his mother who calls him "my duck", in French. I don't know why it made me laugh. I just couldn't associate him, a grown up man with this endearment term, although it is just an affectionate name from a mother to a son, just like "sweet heart" in English.

I realized that the Asians have been imitating a lot of endearment terms from English, but it is mostly used between couples, like "darling, sweet heart...". I have not yet heard an Asian mother calls her kid like that, at least not those in my social circle.

I don't know whether I will one day call my kid some French endearment terms like "ma puce (my flea)", "mon chou (my cabbage)", "mon lapin (my rabbit)"..., but surely I won't call him/her mon canard (my duck) or mon poulet (my chick). The reason? Well, if you know the Chinese culture well, duck and hen have double meaning...

Duck = male prostitute
chicken = prostitute

How could I call my own child "prostitute"?

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:53 AM

    I think different culture different meaning

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  2. Anonymous4:12 PM

    I have been calling my little one 'ma puce' 'ma pucinette' 'mon petit coeur' 'ma petite crevette'. ;) It just come naturally.

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  3. Anonymous8:47 AM

    Hehe This is very cute. "My flea" sounds really strange, at least the rest could be something delicious... Nice blog.

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  4. Anonymous4:44 AM

    I call my bf chéri..
    :)

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  5. hahahahahha mon dieu! Ducks & Chicken! Most of time when I cursed it's 'merde!' But now with a son, I had to be more caution as he picks up words really fast.

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  6. hahahahahha this is too hilarious, love the part about ducks and chicken too.

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