Name Jokes

Just a quick post on something funny that happened one time back in Viet Nam:

One member of our group was named Georgia. She's still in-country, I believe, travelling with Nia. Man, I'm jealous!

Yet I digress ... I think it started with someone being all "cool" and calling her "Georgette."

Phong and Long overheard this and started laughing. Georgette sounds very close to a Vietnamese swear word that literally translates as "dead dog."

Later on I was telling them how funny it was to me that a name like "Georgette" would sound like a swear word to them because of all the cheesy, redneck-esque jokes in America about double entendre Asian names. You know: Long Dong, Hung Wel, Medong Hunglo and so on?

I explained to Long the meaning behind the English slang "Hung." He chuckled and then said, "No, in Vietnamese it means 'Hero.'"

"Oh!" I said, "So it means the same thing!"

We all got a great laugh out of that.