"Kak"

I went swimming in JB pool on Sunday. When I reached there at 2pm when it just opened after lunch break, there was nobody in the pool. I was happy every time I see the pool is empty. I went into the changing room, while doing warm up, I heard a lot of noise outside, “kecoh” , in Malay terms.

I went out after that, oh my gosh, 10 over teenage boys were already in the pool shouting, playing… so noisy.

It wasn’t a nice day, after I swam for a while it started raining. We all got up and waited for the rain to stop. When it became a drizzle everybody rushed into the pool again. The Malay lifeguard then called out to me, “Kak! Kak!” He asked me why I hadn’t gone back to the pool to swim again. But he called me “kak”! It’s elder sister in Malay. NEVER, had ANY Malay man or woman (people I don’t know) call me, a Chinese girl - “kak”. It felt so good, felt respected. The lifeguard is not exactly young, I don’t know how old is he, should be around my age or older than me.

The thing is, Malays, when they call out to Malay girls, it’s always, “adik”(younger sister) or “kak”. When they call Chinese girls, if they are nice enough they will call you adik, but most of the time, they will just call you “Ah Moy!”. I hate that. Sounds so rude. I don’t know if they think that’s what they should call Chinese girls or they dislike calling Chinese girls adik…

So can you imagine how I felt when that lifeguard called me “kak”?? Very delighted, very very delighted indeed. hahaha…