#228
Rockstar: Mum. I learned to write “moon” in Chai-nese. It’s like this.
(Writes in air. No, I have no idea whether that is really “moon in Chai-nese”. Though yes when he does that every day with English alphabets after school I can tell he’s got the right alphabets…)
Me: Wow, really? Impressive.
Rockstar: No wait. That’s wrong. This is “moon.”
(More hand movements in the air. Honestly he could be totally messing with me on this and I would never know.)
Me: Oh, ok, that’s cool. Looks nice.
<pause>
Rockstar: Also, I think one of my teachers is turning into a Eurasian.
Me: Wha-at? You’re born Asian, Caucasian or Eurasian. You don’t turn into something else.
Rockstar: Now I think she’s a Eurasian.
Me: I thought you couldn’t tell Eurasian from Caucasian and Asian.
Rockstar: I just think now she’s a Eurasian not a Caucasian. Now she looks different.
Me: What d’you mean, did she change her hair color or something?
Rockstar: Oh yeah that’s it! Her hair color is different. It’s not so blonde.
Me: You’re born a certain race/coloring, darling. You can pick up other traditions or religions – for eg Christmas – but just because you change your hair color doesn’t mean you change your race.
(Decide to leave tanning and the Michael Jackson black or white thing for another time, if he ever asks if you can change your skin color. Hair color is easier, my mum leaves boxes of hair color around the apartment.)
Rockstar: <looking dubious> Um…
Me: If you colored your hair blonde would you still be Asian?
Rockstar: Oh. Yeah.
Sometime later…
Rockstar: She’s not a Eurasian anymore.
Me: Oh really. Your teacher you mentioned earlier.
Rockstar: Yeah. She’s really Caucasian.
Me: You decided, or…?
Rockstar: I decided. She looks Caucasian after all, not Eurasian.
Me: But you can still write “moon” in Chai-nese.
Rockstar: Yeah. It’s this.
(More hand movements. I have no idea if any of his “moon in Chai-nese” hand movements were ever the same.)
Me: You know Mummy has no idea if you’re messing with her or not when it comes to your Chai-nese, right?
Rockstar: Yup.
Me: So are you messing with me about your Chai-nese writing?
Rockstar: I might be.
Me: Why “might be”?
Rockstar: Because I can’t remember if I got it right.
Ps: Mummy friend asks for pics of him in her tailor-made clothes and I ask him to oblige, this the kind of posing I get…
Is that a “punch air” pose? Good to hear that Rockstar is finding writing Chinese fun (to want to show you how to write Chinese characters). 🙂
Haha yes more “important” that he tried to show me something in Chinese than whether he got it right! Yes that’s a punch air pose… There’s also an “iron man” pose (but for that he wud have his palm open)