- Your daughter says, "Hello Aunty" or "Hello Uncle" to any miscellaneous Singaporean she meets.
These cultural linguistic peculiarities just make for an interesting experience! Just as well, because Miles and I will be staying here 3 more years. Yesterday, we had one of those moments where we knew we'd made the right decision:
Miles got into a taxi and the driver (Uncle!!) immediately found a CD of children's songs to put on for Scarlett to listen to. When they arrived at their destination, the driver rustled about and brought out a red envelope which he had written on to give to her. Inside was a glow-in-the-dark dolphin. The writing (kindly in both Chinese AND English) said, "Sweet, Kind, Clever." It absolutely made Scarlett's day, and it made ours too, as the taxi driver was the epitome of the lovely Singaporeans we meet everyday.
On a rather sadder note, the Aunty who sweeps the leaves outside our apartment arrived with a black eye, cut cheek and split lip. When I asked her what happened, she explained (in very broken English) that her husband got angry with her. I told her to leave him, but I'm not sure she understood. Isn't that just awful!
I know Scarlett and Griffin will be lucky to experience the diversities of life in Singapore. We certainly do.
Scarlett with her red envelope and dolphin.
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