The story about your nickname!

@Sunbae Chinese baby names are really interesting. Linguistically and historically, they are very complex. I could see from the get-go that there are a lot of expectations from you from your name and as a guy. :) I'm an only child and a girl, so as cheesy as it sounds, I was "the Apple of my parents' eyes". You spent more years in Hong Kong? So you're more a Cantonese than a Mandarin speaker then? My grandparents on my mother's side of the family are Spanish-Chinese and my grandparents on my father's side of the family are Filipino-Chinese. Genealogy of Asian families have always interested me because me and my cousins are products of race mixing and matching (and migration, of course)!

We spoke both growing up, but I don't speak the Beijing dialect, the one where they go "Huar" instead of "Hua." Our accents sound very countryside like. It actually kind of sounds like a Korean person trying to speak mandarin with the ehhwooehh accent. Like instead of going "wo shi zhong guo ren" we would go "wei shi jhong gua yen" I was lucky and my family wasn't too sexist, although my head uncle really was. I feel like he saw more as more of an object than as a person. People usually only talk about asian females being oppressed, but let me tell you, first born asian males get the blunt force of the family anger. Spanish Chinese? That's the first I've heard of that. I've seen French Chinese, Vietnamese Chinese, Korean Chinese, and British Chinese. I'm kind of curious as to what spanish would look like

@Sunbae My accent is very negligible now. The Filipino, Chinese, and English languages have been incorporated into our everyday lives that we no longer notice the accents changing or disappearing. We rely more on context clues to know which words we might be referring to in conversations. :D EDIT: Chinese and Spanish migrants have long existed together in Philippine society. We were colonized for 300 years by the Spanish and the Chinese have always had a long and strong history of trade with the Philippines. It's not uncommon for their/our ancestors to intermarry. :) As for sexism, it does exist. I still have friends from all-girls' schools who were betrothed to boys whose families have business ties with the girls' families. This is not very common, though. And the boys and girls both really like each other anyway, so that's all good, I guess. In our family, most females get special treatment and we are all spoiled, as much as I hate to admit that. :D

I 100% rely on written Chinese when I go to the mainland. It's a bit embarrassing, but they speak so weirdly and rudely. When you think of Japanese titles, you think of calling an older man that isn't older than your youngest uncle, Oniichan. We kind of do that in my dialect, we call him gege (but the way we pronounce it sounds more like Keh Keh) and Onee chan would be Jie Jie. Same with aunt being A ku and uncle being A So. The difference is, Japanese don't call their younger siblings/younger children imouto san and ototo san. We do in mei mei and di di (dai dai in our dialect). They're so rude. They straight up call you by your name! and not even your last name, your first name.... without the suffix! I know it sounds weird, but if you did that to someone in where I'm from, it's the same as telling them "I don't respect your name, your family, or you."

@Sunbae When we go to the mainland, I can converse to save my life, but they always question my accent! >_< I only know how to read basic stuff on the menu! And I totally understand where you're coming from with the name order and suffix thing!

I can already tell that you're talking about the Yam Cha menu. They make that thing as difficult to read as possible by making it a mix of simplified and traditional. They also force the Pinyin into their dialect by adding unnecessary "r"s in there and not changing the two 3rd accents into ugh... And when they walk around with the carts, they yell it as quickly as they can with the deepest accent then can. Yeah, I can tell you're talking about the Yam Cha menu. If I'm wrong, I'd be so disappointed because I went into this with confidence

@Sunbae In Hong Kong, yes. But in Beijing, I was thinking of another place, haha! :D You're half right! EDIT: I just realized something -- are you referring to dim sum here? Or the real food place in HK, Yum Cha? Haha!

Dim Sum in general haha. We call it Yum (Yam) Cha which, as you know, means to drink tea. But it also means to eat dim sum. Am I still half right? Is it full yet?

@Sunbae Fine, you're right! Here's your A and gold star. You'll bring honor to the family, I'm sure! :P http://rlv.zcache.ca/a_star_sticker-r0b7d8724507e48198d956a49f8566630_v9w09_8byvr_512.jpg EDIT: There's a real place in Hong Kong called Yum Cha. Their dim sum is very good! You should try it when you go visit again. :)

Omg yes. I'd like to thank my family for the wonderful opportunity they gave me and the dimsum place in mainland china, the one where the lady broke the teapot and hot tea seared my leg, because that's where I learned that menus can be confusing. But yes, I feel satisfied now. YUSSSSS I'm going to head to sleep since it's 3 am over here (I normally sleep at 10 pm. The only reason why I was awake in the first place was because of an Earthquake and I was afraid of an aftershock).