My mother's father's brother is... Chinese family titles
When it comes to family titles, English is so simple. Everyone is either an aunty, an uncle, a grandad, nanny etc. You have a maximum of maybe 4 or 5 family references to learn. Chinese, on the other hand, is not so simple!
In Chinese, dependant on whether the family member is from your mother's side or your father's side of the family, relations have different names. This is the same for every family, so there's no "call me nanny" or "I want to be called granny Jean" choices to be made. It's all set depending on the generational gap between you and baby and which side of the family you sit on. For example, your father's father is Yeh Yeh, your mother's father is Goong Goong.
At dinner last weekend, mum, Popo (I call her such because she's my mother's mother and therefore Popo - pronounced por or - or Ah Po) and I were discussing what baby will call Popo. She can't call my Popo the same as she will call my mum Popo, so baby will call my Popo Tai Po. Confusing? Well then we tried to work out what baby would call my Goong Goong's brother (my mother's uncle). We had no idea! Mum calls him Harry Sook (sook is your father's younger brother), but baby wouldn't call him the same!
So this morning I googled and found this... an invaluable table detailing all the family references depending on which side of the family you sit! Soooooo....
I could go on to describe cousins (yes each has a different title depending on which side of the family, whether they're younger or older than me!), uncles, aunts and so on, but I'll let you look it up instead!
Confusing but nice to have tradition!
In Chinese, dependant on whether the family member is from your mother's side or your father's side of the family, relations have different names. This is the same for every family, so there's no "call me nanny" or "I want to be called granny Jean" choices to be made. It's all set depending on the generational gap between you and baby and which side of the family you sit on. For example, your father's father is Yeh Yeh, your mother's father is Goong Goong.
At dinner last weekend, mum, Popo (I call her such because she's my mother's mother and therefore Popo - pronounced por or - or Ah Po) and I were discussing what baby will call Popo. She can't call my Popo the same as she will call my mum Popo, so baby will call my Popo Tai Po. Confusing? Well then we tried to work out what baby would call my Goong Goong's brother (my mother's uncle). We had no idea! Mum calls him Harry Sook (sook is your father's younger brother), but baby wouldn't call him the same!
So this morning I googled and found this... an invaluable table detailing all the family references depending on which side of the family you sit! Soooooo....
- My younger sister Keri will be called Yee Yee (which is what we used to call my Mum's younger sister).
- Hubby's younger brother will be called Sook Sook.
- Mum will be called Popo.
- Dad will be called Goong Goong.
- Hubby's Dad will be called Yeh Yeh.
- Hubby's Mum (god rest her soul) will be called Ma Ma.
- My Popo will be called Tai Po.
I could go on to describe cousins (yes each has a different title depending on which side of the family, whether they're younger or older than me!), uncles, aunts and so on, but I'll let you look it up instead!
Confusing but nice to have tradition!
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