What do you call who?

I am in the ‘bro‘ phase. By that I mean I call almost everybody a ‘bro’. If I see a friend that I can’t remember his name, I would call him a ‘bro’. If I see a staff that I cannot remember his name I will call him a ‘bro’. This salutation is reserved for a male, younger than myself and pretty progressive

Then, there is ‘bang‘ (a short for ‘abang’). I would normally use this at Malay theme restaurant in order to get the waiter’s attention. This is applicable for the young or old. There is no age barrier for this salutation. Just don’t use it like ‘abaaaaaang” in a manja voice. That would be scary. Very scary.

The next one is ‘brader‘. I call the burger guy…’brader’ as in “brader, burger ayam special satu!” I can use this interchangeably with ‘abang’ at Malay restaurant but use it only if the waiter is younger or of similar age. I am old, so almost everybody is game. You can use ‘Pakcik’ if you are a women but ‘Abang’ will get better attention. Trust me 🙂

‘Aney‘ is only used at Mamak restaurants. Can be used for old or young waiter. Preferably an older person. There is no female version of ‘aney’

‘Thamby‘ can be used in exchange for ‘Aney’ but only if the person is young adolescence. Balding, big stomached mustached man cannot be called ‘Thamby’ unless you have a death wish.