Respect?

Today I walked into our small class at university and greeted my fellow students.

To the new student who has just changed from the morning class to our afternoon class, I raised my hands, palms together and greeted her in Khmer using the respectful greeting.

To the only male student I used the casual Khmer greeting.

To my Dutch friend (female) I said in English, "Hey groover. How are ya?"

And to my American friend (female) I said, "Hey sexi!"

It just so happened that today we were studying greetings to show respect. If I remember the vocab for more than a day, I will be able to greet the King if I ever bump into him strolling along the riverfront or welcome honourary guests to a formal meeting. Very handy.

While it is all very good to be polite, I must say that I usually enjoy more casual interaction.

To give another recent example, as I was cycling home, my Dutch friend passed me on a motorbike. She turned her head, waved her hand and yelled out, "Hey sexi!" for all the peak-hour traffic to hear. Very un-Khmer but very funny!