no longer your jiejie

[meitachi]

I've spent many hours contemplating what it means to be an adult and whether or not I am one when I do/don't feel like one. Well, ready or not, regardless of how I feel internally, I've finally stumbled across the indisputable sign of being an adult: when children (of landladies, neighbors, family friends) start calling you "ah yi".

"AH YI HAO," they say.

"Oh dear lord," I say, in terror. There's no going back from here.

Comments

[chaos-harmony.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

(It's okay, having hit my twenties, I'm probably due for the ah yi treatment soon too. AT LEAST WE'RE STILL "UNNI" AND NOT "AJUMMA," OKAY.)

[meiface.livejournal.com]

We just have to only spend time with people close to us in age so they keep calling us jiejie/unni and not around little kids who will call us horrible things, cry. Though I suppose ajumma starts a little later later in life? Whereas ah yi is more like the polite Chinese equivalent of ma'am*?

*in places not the South whee they will call you ma'am regardless of age because it's a matter of manners (and weirdly I have no issue with being called ma'am at all)

[meiface.livejournal.com]

SHUT UP YOU'RE YOUNGER THAN ME I HATE YOU

[honeyrue.livejournal.com]

driveby commenting to heartily concur omg the WORST

[meiface.livejournal.com]

UGH IT'S SO TRAGIC. I'm not prepared for this! Adorable small children, stop breaking my heart. :(

[acornmama.livejournal.com]

I remember the first time some young thing called me "Ma'am".For the life of me, I couln't figure out who he was talking to until my husband laughed and nudged me to let me know it was me. Blew my mind!

[meiface.livejournal.com]

Oh man, see, that is something that's not weird for me having grown up in part in the South. We get called "ma'am" even if we're obviously young sometimes, just as a matter of politeness! So that's never had the "OH GOD, OLD" connotations I've had with "ah yi" which I've personally used as a kid and exclusively towards "adults". orz How has time passed so quickly?

[2naonh3-cl2.livejournal.com]

Proud to say that I have yet to be called ahjumma, by anyone, not even small children. Still unni, where ever I go. An I'm older than you. :P Bwahahahahaha.

[meiface.livejournal.com]

yeahhh they're not exactly equivalent though? "ah yi" is really used for any adult female, esp. if there's at least a 10+ year gap. I should apparently just not hang out with small children ever again...

[forochel.livejournal.com]

...oh dear lord.


*holds you tight* o______________o

[meiface.livejournal.com]

T___T I will hold you too the day it happens to you, Mishy. That inevitable day.

[forochel.livejournal.com]

OH IT'S HAPPENED TO ME ALREADY MEI

IT HAPPENED TWO YEARS AGO

WHILST I WAS WALKING HOME FROM WORK

AND AN INNOCENT BABE SAID UNTO ME, "HI AUNTIE!"

SHE DID NOT KNOW THE WEIGHT OF THE BLOW SHE DEALT

SHE MERELY GIGGLED AT MY WAIL OF HORROR

AS I RAN BACK HOME TO NURSE MY WOUNDS IN MY LAIR

[meiface.livejournal.com]

this is like a tragic poem of mourning

[forochel.livejournal.com]

it is a lament in memoriam of that horrible evening


also I like how you've used the donghae icon of glee. it's very schadenfreude.

[papered.livejournal.com]

MEI, THIS HAS ALREADY HAPPENED TO ME. T___________T I THINK IT WAS LAST YEAR OR SOMETHING (MOSTLY I'VE TRIED TO REPRESS THE INCIDENT), BUT I WAS PLAYING WITH ONE OF THE NEIGHBOUR'S KIDS, AND THE LITTLE GIRL DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE, AND HER MOM WAS LIKE AUNTIE HAS TO GO HOME AND SLEEP NOW, SAY GOODBYE~ and I had this moment of WHO? followed by horrified disbelief. admittedly, the girl is about 3, but still. I wept inside >:(

[meiface.livejournal.com]

ahaha yeah ;___; same with me -- the kids were like 2 or 3 but I'm like "DON'T RUB IT IN HOW OLD I AM, SOB". alskdjfhkl so tragic.

ALSO YOU ARE FOREVER SO MUCH YOUNGER THAN ME, UGH. I keep forgetting. /pokes you

[aestivalaurorae.livejournal.com]

Haha this reminds me of Ariel Lin in her drama (I don't know if you've seen it) when everyone is calling her "Ah Yi." But omg that must be the worst when it's tiny adorable children saying it so innocently. d:

[meiface.livejournal.com]

noo I am terrible at watching dramas and Ariel Lin's been in so many! Probably the only real thing I've seen her in is her MV for "Firefly" and only because Siwon and Donghae were in it and I was like WTF. But it was kind of adorable.

Sob, "ah yi", nooo.