Miss Independent?

Over the past couple of weeks my younger bro has given me the nickname Independent. This has caused me much grief because I couldn't figure out why he started calling my by this name.

Cambodia is much more of a collective culture than I'm used to (to give one small example- in Khmer the word for different is the same as the word wrong). With this in mind I have been making a real effort to do things together with my adopted family. There have been several Saturday and Sunday nights recently when I have turned down invitations to go out with my friends because I don't want my family to think that I'm trying to avoid them. So I was pretty cut that my adopted bro should start calling me Independent.

I have asked him about it a couple of times but he's only smiled and avoided replying. Finally, on Wednesday night, I asked him once more. "Why this new name? Why independent?" I asked him three times with the "I'm not messing with you here... I really want an answer" tone of voice. Finally he said, "I don't know what it means! I heard it on TV!"

I gave a rough translation of what it means in Khmer and told him that I don't like this nickname. He stopped for a couple of days but he started again this afternoon (probably because he knows it bugs me!) - I guess at least now he knows what it means.