Why you didn't Call me?

I don't know if this happens in other cultures? For us Chinese, we were taught from young to 'call' an older person (ie : grandparents or aunties, uncles) when we see them.

"Call' here is to acknowledge and greet the presence of a person of higher status.

For example, when we go to my grandma's house, the young children have to be first to greet the older folks : "Por-Por", "Kung-Kung", "Ah-Yi" etc. Woe to the child who forgot to call, or if the greeting was not heard!

Our parents will get "How come your girl don't know how to call ah? You never teach ah?" (There are many variation to the admonishment!) I used to feel very angry, especially when I did call/greet/acknowledge the elders, but they didn't hear me because they were playing mahjong or chit-chatting. And when we were kids, "Children are to be seen, and not heard" was still the norm.

Now that we are parents ourselves, we passed on this practice to our children. History does repeat itself. Now it's us who gets the "You young generation don't know how to teach your children to call."

I'll always remind my kids: "Hey, call Por-por ah"
Or when an aunt walks: in "Kids, call Ah-Yi"

Today, my uncle said to Jeremy "Hey boy, you  didn't call me ah?"

Jeremy ignored him, and of course I tried to 'teach him his manners' :
"Jeremy, you didn't call Kau-Kung? You must call you know."

Jeremy sulkily replied "I got call! He is the one who didn't call me back!"