Working with "ah teongs" has it hilarious moments, although sometimes at it most annoying. Recently, this colleague of mine from China came into the kitchen to ask about some English word she heard, "just now an old lady touched my cheeks and said nicermee, what does that mean?" she said in Mandarin.
Eric and I were dumbfounded. "What nicermee? There's no such word." Eric explained, half irritated.
"Nicermee!" again she said. "Emma, Eh-ya, See-ya!" Shangyan recited in a desperate attempt to spell the word. We understood absolutely nothing of what she said and I nearly burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry, but we just can't understand your pronunciation." I replied, extremely amused by her attempt.
"Nicermee-ya!" She cried.
"What are you trying to say? There's no such word in English, have you heard it wrongly or maybe you pronounced it wrongly?" Eric asked, annoyed with Shangyan.
I have no idea how we came up with an answer but we later found out she was merely trying to pronounce the word "nice".
"It NICE. Not nicermee. There's no mee!" said Eric, impatiently.
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