From a coffee bean to an opera singer - an intro

I simply started out as a coffee bean.

Hi, I am Pradichaya from Bangkok, Thailand. Many years ago, when I was born, I was given this beautiful name - Pradichaya . It's Sanskrit, and I was told that its meaning is 'a person who speaks with honesty' Also, my name was to match my mother's 'Sutcharit' - honesty.

But I was also given another name. Just like any Thai, we have nice long lavish first names. But because of the nice long lavish names, our parents would come up with nicknames for us to simplify the process of calling their children, especially when they are in trouble and parents are angry. Who has time and patience to call out fancy long tongue-twisters too difficult to pronounce anyway? (Never mind that they were the ones who gave us these names!) Nicknames usually come from favorite pets - cat, mouse, pig, elephant (they sound better in Thai, really) - anything but dog (no dog - it's considered rude, disrespectful and insulting all the way up the family tree), things, anything cute - they're big on insisting that their kids will be cute forever.

To sum it up, we often hear: Maew-cat, Mu-pig, Noo-mouse, Chang-elephant, Fa-sky or the color blue, Sai-sand, Naam-water, Mamuong-mango, Shompu-rose apple, Chompu-pink. My favorites are names that derived from English (they're all considered cute): Jawd, Jeb, Cookie, Pinky, Top, Mikeun, Samy or My, etc. These names are equivalent to George, Jeff, cookie, pinky, top, Michael, smile, respectively. To top it off, children are referred to as 'Nong' by parents, relatives, family friends, hired help in the household (lived in maids, nannies, drivers, gardeners) Nong literally translates to younger sister and brother, also indicates the respect that the person has for you (if you're called 'Nong') and for your parents - when added to the already cute and adorable names, it emphasizes that the already cute and adorable names are even more cute and adorable. Here are some samples of how we (Thais) are referred to: NongChang, NongTop, NongNoo, NongShompu, NongJeb. The term Nong remains with you for a long, long, long time, may be until you grow old - really, really old.

At this point, you probably wonder: To which nickname is she referred?!?!?!?

If you haven't found out already (of course not, then you wouldn't be wondering) I'll fill you in after I come back to the blog. (No, it's not coffee bean - though, that sounds pretty good)