You Smell Like a Flower

Ban thom nhu hoa is Vietnamese for "you smell like a flower." A guy I work with named Du is expecting his son to be born in about 2 weeks. We talked about names. His daughter's middle name is Nhu, and I asked him what it means. He told me flower. The next day I came to him and asked, "Du, how do you say 'you smell like a flower' in Vietnamese?" I wrote it down on a sticky note and went to find Mr. Ngan, Du's father, who's in his fifties. He's an old skinny guy, but has a good sense of humor. I couldn't stop laughing to myself that I was going to tell him that he smells like a flower, but I finally got it out. I'm sure my accent leaves much to be desired, but he understood, repeated in English, and smiled at me before we both started laughing together. Since it is the only Vietnamese phrase I know so far, it's all I say, and the guys think it is hilarious!