Further to my blog Faux pas in Chinese:
I had a Spanish student who kept pronouncing 姐姐 jiějie (older sister) as 爺爺 yéye (grandfather). Imagine the bemusement in real life as she’s pointing at her female sibling and announcing her as a 爺爺.
My second sister did the same thing in Malay, mixing the different labels for siblings. She said to a Malay chap, referring to my eldest sister, “She’s my adik [younger sister],” when my elder sister obviously did not look the younger one. The man (an expectant father waiting for my mother’s return, to go and deliver his baby) said in surprise, “Adik?!” My 2nd sister realised her mistake and said, “bukan bukan [not, not], abang, abang [older brother]!” The poor man was even more confused.
(London, 1980s / Singapore, 1960s)
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