Tag: chinese families

child-of-the-fairy-folk:

ecthvlion:

ash-soka:

regneriisch:

i-survived-bitch:

summerisanerd:

shakespork:

kaardalaa:

@ people who write fic of siblings: we don’t constantly call each other “big sis” or “little brother” stop doing that

list of things i have called my little brother:

  • nerd lord
  • bitchass
  • bruh
  • my lad
  • boyo
  • bro bro
  • 10 thousand variations of his name

list of things i have never in my life said to my little brother:

  • little brother
  • his actual name

also adding bro into their name lol like

  • broshua

My brother calls me “sisteren” because there’s no equivalent to the word “brethren.” It’s pretty clever

  • ur sublings name but in a really annoying voice
  • not saying anything but u just prod them with your foot until you have their attention
  • my sibling always just walks into my room unannounced

• anything that rhymes with their name (e.g. la-cheese instead of louise)

• some family in joke nickname no one else gets that has a story behind it going back to when they were born

• another name that’s almost theirs but not (e.g. andre for andrew)

  • Over pronouncing their name (eg. My brother calls me fee-on-n)
  • Butchering the pronunciation of their name completely
  • Waving a hand at them to get their attention and when they inevitably don’t see getting mad at them
  • Any combination of swearwords that even remotely resemble a way to refer to someone (but only when parents are out of earshot)

“No, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Why are you crying, are you okay? Please don’t tell mom!”

One of the only times calling family members exclusively by ‘older brother’ etc makes sense: Chinese families.

And even then, it only works in the Chinese languages because they have specific words/titles for everyone, with a very clear hierachy. First brother/sister (oldest older sinling), second brother/sister (aka next oldest sibling), third older brother/sister, younger brother/sister (younger sibling closest in age to you), second younger brother/sister, so on and so forth. It’s less clunky in the Chinese languages, trust me, which is why even English-speaking families like mine use our mother tongue for the titles.

Example: I call my dad’s oldest brother (大伯) and his wife (大伯娘) by a different title than my dad’s third oldest brother (三伯) and his wife (三伯娘). With my brother, I’ve only ever called him ‘Gorgor’ 哥哥 or ‘Gor’ 哥, ‘older brother’ in Cantonese. I’ve never heard my mum call her older brother, my uncle, anything other than ‘Gor’ or ‘Gorgor’ either, and she’s a working professional in her 50s.

Disclaimer: I’ve never had reason to write down what I call my dad’s oldest brother etc., so my guesses at how to write it should be taken with caution.