Cultural Blunders

“សូម​មក មក មក ខលីន មក”!

We sat down for dinner and were about to enjoy a meal with friends when we heard our landlady shouting the words above. We left our friends at the table and went outside and around the back of our house, which is where our landlord and his family live. Our landlady’s sister has been quite sick and fainted and fallen going up the steep metal stairs.

Receiving instructions in Khmer, we managed to lift her to the top of the stairs and as our landlady held her, we found some pillows and a blanket for her to lay down on. In this process of getting her into a comfortable position in a tiny space, I stepped over the sister’s legs. As soon as I stepped over, she said something in a groggy yet stern tone of voice. I knew immediately that I had done something bad.

I immediately remembered a lesson we had learned a year ago in language school that stepping over someone’s legs is very disrespectful, especially when you step over an older person’s legs. Ooops. When Colin came around with the pillows, I urged him to be careful to go around her legs and she actually moved her legs quickly to avoid being stepped over again.

Later, once she was situated, I apologized to our landlady for stepping over her sick sister’s legs. She said not to worry about it and in that moment I was thankful for her grace towards our cultural differences.

We are receiving bigger doses of cultural integration these days. It’s hard, encouraging, frustrating, and exciting all at the same time.