Lost in Translation

I was waiting patiently at my nail salon this afternoon when Mai, the manicurist sits down and says, in her broken English, "You very look nice." The emphasis being on the "nice." I had my hair cut and blown out earlier in the day.

"I come up from behind you and I think you eighteen." She giggles. "Well thank you!" I reply, happily surprised. Her sister says something in Vietnamese and smiles at me. Mai kindly translates, "Lily, she says she likes your hair. You know why?" I'm thinking I don't, but let her continue. "Because you have so much of it."

Well, now I am feeling mighty good about myself. Mai, usually on the quiet side is obviously on a roll. "I think even though you short, (she puts her hand down low, so I can't possibly misunderstand her), with all your hair, you must have been very pretty, when you were younger. I know. I can tell."

She is smiling like a Cheshire Cat, very proud of her observation.  She lost me at "short."