One of my pet hates is the dismissive hand flapping that is endemic in Cambodia. My favourite flappy hand experience, that I may have mentioned before, involved a flat tyre on my bicycle (precipitated by the first incompetent bicycle repair man destroying my valve), a very hot 'hot season' morning & four bicycle repair people flapping their hands at me dismissively as I walked for one hour just trying to get it repaired.
When ever I have brought up the hand flapping with Cambodians they generally don't see it as rude at all, they just stare at me impassively wondering what the problem could be. This is Cambodia - flapping your hand in someones face is apparently neither disrespectful or rude. Mind the culture gap.
However the other day I had a flat tyre - also endemic in Cambodia - the wheel had not been put back onto my bike correctly after the repair, which I only noticed after my evening Khmer lesson. My teacher & Cambodian mother, S, insisted on coming with me to facilitate fixing it. Like a true translator she not only navigated the linguistic waters but also helped with some of the cultural eddies as well.
At the first repair place, near her house, we got the flappy hand from the man - he only did motos, not bicycles, I was reliably informed.
The second place looked promising as he was in the process of fixing a child's bicycle but he too flapped his hand in our general direction & then I saw something previously unprecedented by a cambodian - S also got offended by his flappy hand. She asked him why he was dismissing us & he told us he was busy. This is as far as I have ever got with this particular scenario - keep walking until you find someone who doesn't flap their hand in your face even if that takes an hour.
Both my Grandmothers have died but when they were alive one of their favourite pastimes was telling random strangers what my occupation was. One time the gas meter man was told I was a doctor as he dutifully read my Grandmothers meter, whilst I quietly died of embarrassment in the kitchen. My Grandfathers I'm sure would have been equally proud, its just they had both died by the time I had qualified.
S - channeling the ghosts of my Grandmothers - pulled herself up on her 4 foot 11 inch frame & looking the bicycle repair man square in the eye, assertively told him that I was a doctor working at the hospital & he WOULD fix my bicycle, we would wait.
I am so used to the flappy hands at the hospital I wasn't aware that announcing my credentials would have such a positive effect.
5 minutes later the wheel was central, S was the first Cambodian to understand the flappy hand from a barang perspective & I even got a smile out of the repair man.
From a woman that gesticulates so much herself I wonder why it is that I find the flappy hands so offensive. But this is Cambodia - Kingdom of Wonders......
When ever I have brought up the hand flapping with Cambodians they generally don't see it as rude at all, they just stare at me impassively wondering what the problem could be. This is Cambodia - flapping your hand in someones face is apparently neither disrespectful or rude. Mind the culture gap.
However the other day I had a flat tyre - also endemic in Cambodia - the wheel had not been put back onto my bike correctly after the repair, which I only noticed after my evening Khmer lesson. My teacher & Cambodian mother, S, insisted on coming with me to facilitate fixing it. Like a true translator she not only navigated the linguistic waters but also helped with some of the cultural eddies as well.
At the first repair place, near her house, we got the flappy hand from the man - he only did motos, not bicycles, I was reliably informed.
The second place looked promising as he was in the process of fixing a child's bicycle but he too flapped his hand in our general direction & then I saw something previously unprecedented by a cambodian - S also got offended by his flappy hand. She asked him why he was dismissing us & he told us he was busy. This is as far as I have ever got with this particular scenario - keep walking until you find someone who doesn't flap their hand in your face even if that takes an hour.
Both my Grandmothers have died but when they were alive one of their favourite pastimes was telling random strangers what my occupation was. One time the gas meter man was told I was a doctor as he dutifully read my Grandmothers meter, whilst I quietly died of embarrassment in the kitchen. My Grandfathers I'm sure would have been equally proud, its just they had both died by the time I had qualified.
S - channeling the ghosts of my Grandmothers - pulled herself up on her 4 foot 11 inch frame & looking the bicycle repair man square in the eye, assertively told him that I was a doctor working at the hospital & he WOULD fix my bicycle, we would wait.
I am so used to the flappy hands at the hospital I wasn't aware that announcing my credentials would have such a positive effect.
5 minutes later the wheel was central, S was the first Cambodian to understand the flappy hand from a barang perspective & I even got a smile out of the repair man.
From a woman that gesticulates so much herself I wonder why it is that I find the flappy hands so offensive. But this is Cambodia - Kingdom of Wonders......
This might be my favourite post so far. I tend to get the flappy hand at the market, when I'm trying to park my bike in the bike park. I get flapped away but the moto that is RIGHT behind me gets let in. This also generally happens when it is ROASTING hot and I'm ready to collapse. Once, after being flapped away from two or three parking lots, I looked a bit desperate and said (in Khmer) "everywhere busy" and he let me in. Looks like challenging the flappy hands is the way to go!
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