The Tagline Part 3
"My wife left me for my best friend last year in China. I cried every day. I WOULD DO ANYTHING TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH HER." replied Lau.
And with that ... the meeting just got WEIRD!!!!
There was dead silence in the room for about ten seconds. Ryan and Ken looked at me for a bit.
Why the hell are you looking at me?, I thought to myself. Just because I'm the same race as this guy doesn't mean I know how to handle this situation!!
"All right, let's conclude for the day. Have a good evening. We'll meet up again on Friday morning." said Ryan.
With that, the meeting concluded. As everyone started to leave, I called to Lau to have a chat with him.
I explained to Lau that a key part of American "Joke" culture is to trash family members.
" 他不愛他的太太嗎？[he doesn't love his, wife?]" asked Lau.
I explained that he does, but in American culture you always make fun of family ... treating them as sort of an annoyance. There's no bad feeling because of this, it's just part of the culture."
"真的嗎 [really?]" ask Lau in disbelief.
I replied yes. It's probably strange to Asian who hold the family in such high regard, but in American culture you will often find a person trashing their spouse or kids.
Moreover, I explained that in American culture it's okay to talk about your problems out in the open, as long as you make it sound like it doesn't really bother you. You often find people talking about health issues or personal issues as long they can joke about it.
"Remember last month Chris the fat guy in accounting? He said he was going in for heart surgery, which he was looking forward to since they had Netflix in the hospital room..."
"喔。。。對啊[Oh yeah...]" said Lau.
"Right as long as you can joke about your situation you should be okay. " I replied.
"謝謝John！ 我下次試試看看。[thank you, John. I will try it next time.]" he said.
So next Friday, we all met again in the Tokyo office and planned out the migation details. As the meeting concluded, Ryan talked about his uncle who had just passed away the previous night.
"Oh I am so sorry, Ryan" said Lau.
"Thanks." said Ryan. "Yeah, we all knew it was coming, but I sort of wish he'd lasted a bit longer."
"I am sorry, man" I replied. "But at least he's now [up there] fishing with the big guy."
"Yeah , that's actually what he wants on his tombstone." Ryan added. "Loving Husband and Father ... [GONE FISHING]"
Ken and I both laughed. Lau was a bit puzzled by this response.
"So ... have you guys thought about what you want on your tombstones?" I asked.
Yeah it's sort of a morbid question. But quite appropriate given the context of the discussion.
"I have." said Ken. "I want on my tombstone to have the words [WINDOWS UPDATE COMPLETE]!"
Ryan and I both laughed.
"OH, even better!" shouted Ryan, "I want [YOU MAY NOW RESTART YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM]"
Ryan, Ken and I all laugh out loud. I did think that was pretty funny!
Ryan then turned to Lau. "So Lau any ideas on what you want on your tombstone?" he asked.
OH NO I thought to myself ...
Lau was silent for a few seconds. I hope he gets this right ...
I was wrong. In the next few seconds he totally made the meeting weird again...
"I think I want on my tombstone... [This person's life was awful.. but now he's gone so it's ALL GOOD!] HAHAHA!"
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