How do you explain to a 3 yr old that the Ka-Li-Pok man sells curry puffs but he'll not shout out "Curry Puffs!" but "Ka-Li-Pok!" instead?
Well, yesterday evening we were driving into our estate and the Ka-Li-Pok man cycled past us and gave a low throaty shout "Ka-Li-POK!" Caleb stared at him and asked me hesitantly, "Mummy, why that uncle say cu-rry puff?" I think he couldn't really make out what the man was shouting but knew that he was selling curry puffs, so he improvised and imitated the man's tone but he changed it to "Cu-rry puff" instead.
So... this is my explanation to my son...
Mummy: Caleb, he didn't say Cu-rry puff. He said Ka-Li-Pok, but you're right, he is selling curry puffs."
Caleb: Why Mummy? Why he say Ka-Li-POK? (Yes, he is still at the "why?" stage)
Mummy: Umm... because long, long time ago, the curry puff man couldn't speak good english so he couldn't pronounce the word curry puff, so he used to shout out "Ka-Li-Pok" instead. So now whenever he shouts "Ka-li-pok", everybody knows that he's actually selling curry puffs and will come and buy from him. If he shouts "Curry puff" instead, I don't think anybody will buy from him."
Caleb: Why Mummy? (Yes, he has incessant whys...)
Mummy: Maybe if he shouts "Curry puff", people won't think it's nice? People are used to buying curry puffs from the "Ka-li-Pok" man...
Thankfully, we reached our carpark and Caleb got distracted and forgot to continue asking why. Instead he decided to imitated the Ka-li-pok man and started saying "Ka-li-Pok" and laughing about it.
Btw, I also dunno why all the curry puff sellers choose to say "Ka-li-pok" instead of "curry puff". I just made up the explanation myself. Sounds logical right? Or maybe "Ka-li-pok" is actually Malay or Hindi or something? I dunno lah... I'm no history or linguist. Anyway, I'm just glad that I've once again managed to counter the incessant questions that my son's throwing at me nowadays.
