Simon? Siglap?

I grew up in a Chinese-speaking family who tries hard to speak English. But now only the old ones aren't that great with the language. Well, me and my sis can jabber away all we want but they don't understand a single thing. I think my Ma can catch a thing or two but my Pa won't understand nuthin'. One evening, I was looking at 小杰's (小杰 sounds much nicer than Ethan or 凯杰) little tufts of baby hair, and I remarked on what funny hair he has. Then my Ma suddenly said, “你看，他也有 Simon。”I was like“Simon? 什么 Simon?”Then she went, "Neh, Simon lor," and pointed to his SIDEBURN. Orh....

Another evening, my Pa came home from work. He sort of smiled like he remembered something, and muttered something that sounded like 'Siglap'. I heard it and asked, “什么 Siglap？ Siglap Road arh?” He carried on muttering, "Siglap, siglap," and walked away. I pondered for some moments then finally understood and shouted, "Orh... SHUT UP!!!"

Haha. What funny parents I have. I learnt my Chinese from them, but learnt English in school and the countless episodes of Power Rangers and Seseme Street. Seriously, if you want your kids to start talking like Americans with slang, make them watch Seseme Street.