Lost in translation

My parents made a surprise visit last week and stayed for a few days. The kids were beyond excited and had a great time with their grandparents, even though I doubt my parents understood a word the kids said.

I had to run a couple of errands on Saturday and my mom wanted to tag along. So there we were in the car, driving to the store. My mom is chatting about nothing in particular. It's almost like I'm driving with one of the kids: whatever catches her eye, is what she talks about. We happened to be behind a sedan, filled with 4 people. In the backseat sat 2 men, one is bald and the other balding. We were at a red light so there was plenty of time to notice the occupants in the car in front of us. My mom made a comment about how different white people (as in Caucasians) look from us.

I peer at her from the side of my eye, thinking: what the hell is she talking about? Of course we look different; we're different ethnicities!

Then she said something like "Look at the bald man. Look at his skin. It's so bare."

Again, I give her another look, checking... for what I'm not sure. But I was just making sure she was OK.

"His skin is so... red. Everywhere. His head, his neck... It's red. Not like us. We're brown, yellow, even. But he's red."

Pause. I wasn't sure if this required a response, so I did the standard response I do with the kids: I said nothing.

And then I hear her muttering "Redneck. Redneck." Like Oh! that's what that means.

I started laughing. And couldn't stop. She of course wanted to know what was so funny but I couldn't tell her. I wanted to tell her because I didn't want her to use "redneck" out of context but I really couldn't tell her. I don't have a strong enough grasp of the Vietnamese language to explain what redneck really means. And clearly, I don't have enough mastery of the English language either to explain it in a way that she would understand.

I toyed with the idea of telling her not say that word but having experience with my children, I worried that it would just open a can of why's. So instead I told her I didn't think Baldy looked that red. He looked more tan. And remember Mom, he's white, so he wouldn't tan like us. Because he's different.

Ugh.

Thank goodness the kids weren't in the car.