Living with a lot of people is an everyday struggle for my family and I. Waking up in the morning and getting ready to go to school/work is probably worst than the freeway traffic on a friday evening. The morning sounds of water running, feet stomping, knocking, and grumpy voices result to the words "le len". "Le len" means to "hurry up". "Le len" could be used verbally and physically. For example, you could say the word verbally and you could knock to show it physically. The word "le len" is used in my household 24/7. Hearing that word every single day is aggravating, but it taught me how to be fast and quick.
The phrase itself is a common phrase that could be used everywhere, but in my family it means more than that. The phrase is a repetitive phrase that I have been hearing since I was young. When I lived in Vietnam, I only had about 4 people in my house. Even then I heard the phrase "le len", but it was very rare. Hearing the phrase was uncommon because there are less people in my house. The only time I would hear the phrase is when we have a special event that we have to go to. Living in Vietnam was much more easier than living in America. Since I had my own room at Vietnam, I had no bathroom traffic in the morning and I also got more sleep time than I get in America. Waking up in the morning at Vietnam made me feel like a princess, but waking up in America makes me feel like a witch. Thinking back about how I spent my childhood there makes me miss it so much. Not just cause of more sleep and my own room/bathroom, but it is also because of my loving grandparents. Luckily, I get to visit them every summer!
Getting to places early and on time is my family's "motto". Going to church at 12:00 when mass starts at 3:00 is normal for me. But with school/work, it's a different story. The weekday mornings at my house are chaotic. Usually if a house has three bathrooms, there would be no traffic at all. But in my house, three bathrooms isn't enough. If my life was a movie, the mornings would be scenes from rush hour. One time, we woke up our neighbors just by our loud screaming and knocking. Since my school starts later than other schools, you would think that I get a lot of sleep. But thanks to my cousins I get no sleep at all. They would wake up earlier than me and scream, shout, stomp, knock, and so on. Due to that, I would be grumpy, miserable, and aggravated every single morning. I rarely say the word "le len", but when it comes to my cousins, I would scream it and yell it at them. To be honest, "le len" doesn't bring me a warm and pleasant feeling. Instead it gives me an annoyed and raged feeling. But every time someone says it, it makes me want to go back to my childhood, when I didn't have to worry about the time and I could play all I want without anybody screaming "le len" at me.
Getting to places early and on time is my family's "motto". Going to church at 12:00 when mass starts at 3:00 is normal for me. But with school/work, it's a different story. The weekday mornings at my house are chaotic. Usually if a house has three bathrooms, there would be no traffic at all. But in my house, three bathrooms isn't enough. If my life was a movie, the mornings would be scenes from rush hour. One time, we woke up our neighbors just by our loud screaming and knocking. Since my school starts later than other schools, you would think that I get a lot of sleep. But thanks to my cousins I get no sleep at all. They would wake up earlier than me and scream, shout, stomp, knock, and so on. Due to that, I would be grumpy, miserable, and aggravated every single morning. I rarely say the word "le len", but when it comes to my cousins, I would scream it and yell it at them. To be honest, "le len" doesn't bring me a warm and pleasant feeling. Instead it gives me an annoyed and raged feeling. But every time someone says it, it makes me want to go back to my childhood, when I didn't have to worry about the time and I could play all I want without anybody screaming "le len" at me.
Just like a hamburger, "le len" has different layers to its meaning. One of them is quality. You can't just do things fast. You have to do things fast with quality. For example, If you rush on your homework and there is no character or quality on your homework then what's the point of doing the homework anyways? Whenever it comes to homework, my parents don't care about how fast I do it, they care about how I do it. "Quality beats time", as my mom always says. Thanks to my parents, I learned how to apply that to my daily life. Before... I said that "le len" doesn't have a special meaning, but I was wrong. This is my family's special meaning of "le len", a common word that everybody uses. Before this essay, I haven't really thought about me and my family's "special word". Even while I was writing this essay, I thought that "le len" was just a common word, that had no special meaning. Realizing it now, I should really think about the words that my parents say to me, even if it's common.
Being bilingual has it's disadvantages and advantages. Speaking Vietnamese at home is definitely an honor. When I was in elementary and middle school, I hated the fact that I had to use Vietnamese to communicate with my parents. People would laugh and tease me whenever I spoke Vietnamese. Looking back, I should be the one laughing, because the jokes on them. Speaking another language helps you connect with people. Vietnamese helps me bond with my parents. Who cares if we say common words? It might be an everyday phrase/word, but they wouldn't know my family and I's special definition of it.
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