Showing Love
Sana, being the one and only daughter in her family, always manifests her love by hugging and uttering 'I love you' to her parents (Even before saying goodbye to us, she offers us hugs!). However, hugs and affectionate words are not Yusuf's cup of tea (or his family's).
The possible factors may be:
Sana, being the one and only daughter in her family, always manifests her love by hugging and uttering 'I love you' to her parents (Even before saying goodbye to us, she offers us hugs!). However, hugs and affectionate words are not Yusuf's cup of tea (or his family's).
The possible factors may be:
- he is an older brother, expected to be independent, strong, and not 'mushy'
- he is so far away from home and his parents for the first time (hence, he did not find it necessary, yet)
- he strongly believes his family members know that they love each other very much, and thoughtful actions are enough
Frankly, we were expecting them to not be expressive, supported by Dr Afiza's anecdotes of her half-Chinese family, and the popular tiger-mum theory, but Sana definitely proved us wrong. Sana's family is one the few exceptions.
Advising Others
They directly advise people who they are fond of but with strangers, they will do it indirectly or do not do anything about it. For example, we would try to repeat the Chinese words our friends share with us. Most of the time, Shai's tongue is pretty flexible with Chinese pronunciation,lucky her! But, Afia is hopeless is at it.
This results in Sana and Yusuf repeatedly correcting her mistakes. We constantly remind ourselves to not get offended, reasons being pronunciation and tones are of utmost importance in the Chinese language and direct advising is just how the Chinese people roll. It definitely requires major mindset readjustment.
Tones, a unique feature of the Chinese language
Even Romanized Chinese is challenging to some
No comments:
Post a Comment