A man called... Penis? | Fascinating features of Vietnamese culture
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2021
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I think this is the best video you posted. Super clear camera and audio and I loved the vocabulary review at the end. Really, really helpful and you speak with such a clear Saigonese dialect which I really need to learn. I always wanted to know about this bit of culture about the nicknames. I've been living with my wife's family for about 9 months here in Saigon, and there is so many things that I wish were explained like the way you explained it so clearly. There are also house names here, but nothing like those names. I always wondered why my wife's family doesn't call her by her birth name. I understand so much now.
Annie, Shel Silverstein wrote a poem called a boy named Sue. Johnny Cash made it a song. Man gave his son a girl's name and then abandoned him, hoping he would grow up tough from all the fights he had to endure as a child.
My Viet is soooo bad that this turned out absolutely hilariously!
WHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I LOVE IT!
Thank you for the explanation! They call my brother-in-law "cu" and I never understood why. Now I know! 😉👍
It is so amazing! We used to have a similar custom in old time Korea. People named their kids with vulgar, humble words to avoid the evil force. For example, Dog Poo and Poo Girl are the most common names. Moreover, those were not the home names, but the official ones! How interesting to see the similarity among other cultures! Thank you for bringing up such a useful information, Annie. 😍
This video made my day! Thanks for bringing me a bit of laughter today!
Annie - your best work to date - Strange how I will remember all of this lesson but struggle with past participles etc - Cheers from Australia - See you soon xx
One of my sisters was called “short” in Vietnamese. Another was called “stinky” in Vietnamese.
It must be "ngắn" and "sún"
Scottish Gaelic has a tradition of nicknames and some of them have become regular names like Cameron means "Crooked nose" and Campbell means "crooked mouth"
so embarrassed that our ancesters are so superstitious, my parents and grandparents are so superstitious that they dont dare to call a mouse "con chuột" but they have to call it respectfully as "ông tí" because they think if they call mouses like that they wont bite things in our house 🤣🤣🤣
people are superstitious and otherwise engage in magical thinking all around the world. to me, religion is also magical thinking, but my belief in kamma is to many people just magical thinking. you have nothing here to be embarrassed about good Thanh. your ancestors gave you a foundation in which you can choose how you believe. con chuột btw normally do not bite people because they, perhaps rightly so, fear us. to me, the little ones are very cute but the huge ones i hear live in New York sound very scary (but i don't know if it's true about them being the size of cats, probably not that big, i hope...)
@@dd-ts6ok human brain is a probability machine, when we dont have enough information about a phenomenon we tend to believe the shallow observation. our human ancesters were so vulnerable to the nature that they worshipped many gods. even in modern society where science has developed so significantly, we're still vulnerable to the death and many unpredictable upheavals like the covid pandemic. to be fair, it's not our ancester's fault, because superstition is just the result of evolution. i dont believe in karma because i dont believe in free will.
All peoples have superstitions. They just last longer in some cultures.
White people wore black to funerals with women wearing veils to hide their identities from the spirits in the cemetery. They never walked straight home from a funeral, but took a long route so the dead wouldn't follow them home. 🤷♂️
@@dankendrick9128 in VN if someone is a little bit sick they probably wouldnt go to a funeral bcuz they think they would get sicker, if someone comes back from a funeral they would take a proper shower before having any contacts with a kid or an animal, bcuz they think if they dont they would make them sick
I love Vietnam the way it is with all its superstitions, traditions and customs. Remember young man, that you don't get the milk without the cow. So if you are ready to change the bad, be prepared to change the good.
Great lesson!
In the United States many kids do have nicknames that their friends or even families use for them, as well as special endearing names (sometimes called “pet names”) that only their parents use, or sometimes their siblings as well. It’s even more common in the south. And of course there are simple short forms of certain names. I’ll start with those because they’re the most common, and they often are more than just abbreviations.
So Peter > Pete, Jonathan > Jon, Michael > Mike are pretty straightforward.
But my name is Robert, and people call me Bob. A woman named Margaret may often be called Peggy. Huh? And how does Richard become “Dick?” There’s kind of a formula: Take the name, shorten it to a single syllable, then change the first letter. So:
Richard > Rick > Dick
Robert > Rob > Bob
Margaret > Meg > Peg > Peggy
But my parents also had a “pet name” for me. The story is, when I was a newborn, a little red wrinkled being lying in my mom’s arms, my dad said, “he really doesn’t look like a Robert Christopher, does he?“ mom agreed, but asked, “So what does he look like?“ my dad thought a bit, then said, “He looks like a Wadge.” And it stuck, so that became my “affectionate name“ from my parents. But it would have been very strange if friends started using it too.
As far as I know, English people don’t use the short versions of names quite so readily as we do, although it’s not unheard of.
In the American South, nicknames are especially common. On my mother’s side I had a cousin Cat (Catherine) and an uncle Birdie (I think his real name was William…Will > Bill > Birdie…?). My grandmother‘s name was Augusta but everyone called her Gussie. Her best friend was called Sutty. I have no idea what her real name was, but you can be sure that wasn’t her baptized name!
Another thing that often happens is that there is a name that is passed down through generations. Sometimes the name is a bit outdated, but nobody wants to offend grandmother or grandfather, so they will give the name as a middle name.
We Korean and Chinese used to have the same tradition before but not anymore. But we'd never use terms like 'cu' or 'chim' in these names.
There are many similar customs between Vietnam and Japan.
Some families will use their family name.
But we don't use words like this one.
Ha! Ha! I enjoyed that video far too much! And when I think of how much cultural knowledge I got from it, I am as pleased as punch. By the way, my nickname was Jim! But I changed it when I came to live in Thailand as it has similar connotations to the Vietnamese word. The vocabulary review at the end was a fabulous addition to the video.
This is hilarious! I love Vietnamese culture! :D
Annie, this was one of your best videos over the years I have followed your excellent teaching. In the West, we call home names 'Pet Names' or 'Nicknames'. The best 'Nicknames are found in military colleges where nothing is sacret, ha ha.
Thanks again
I suppose likely the middle name, but it varies for each family. Only my Dad calls me by my middle name so it feels quite special
This is so adorable hahahahaha dễ thương quá
Ugly home name is easy to raise, that also happen in China before, e.g. 'dog' or 'cat' as home name.
Very useful in this lesson. My son's home name is cu đen. It is funny my Vietnamese teacher last time not explain this to me.
I love this lesson! My husband’s home name is King 👑
Thanks, Annie. I am glad that the sound is so good in this video. I have a question: what home names to girls and women have?
Yes they are known as nick names. For example I chose Gandalf for my grandchildren to call me instead of grandfather . Seems the world is not so different as we tend to make it !!!
Vâng, họ được biết đến với biệt danh. Ví dụ, tôi đã chọn Gandalf để các cháu gọi tôi thay vì ông nội. Có vẻ như thế giới không quá khác biệt khi chúng ta có xu hướng tạo ra nó !!!
I do not remember any case where in German speaking regions such a similar tradition is herited. Seems there is quite a substantial lack of believing in spirits. People have sometimes several personal names where one is chosen to be the "Rufname" (calling name) which is referred to also in official documents like e.g. the passport.
Love your vdo em. I cannot really correlate the same magic you have there for nick names. I know for my wife family they use numbers. Like the first sister is called Chi Hai I think. Very different. Never heard words or names like Cu and Chim. I think Chim can be a bird also? Take care. Keep safe.
My mom goes by Mau. Mau is her home name.
does chi hai count as a home name?
🤣 My wife told me about this custom a few years ago. You have now confirmed its truth.
Hahaha so funny and educational at the same time :)
We just call each other a shorter form of the name or a deminiutuve (we add some cute sounding suffix) in czech republic
Would you say it’s similar to English when people call Robert “Bob”, or Richard “Rich/Rick”?
Yes like vladimir vlada jarojir jara lucie lucka almost all names have second version :)
Sometimes second version is very different too like second version of josef being pepa and jan changes to honza
Bài học hay! Khi mình đã đứa trẻ, bố mình gọi mình "nicknames" buồn cười như "bubbie", nhưng không bao giờ "cu" lol. (Xin lời nếu tiếng việt của mình xấu, mình vẫn đang học)
Cảm ơn chia sẻ của anh. Anh viết tiếng Việt giỏi rồi, Annie hiểu hết mà.
@@LearnVietnameseWithAnnie cảm ơn Annie!
How about Cu Teo?(ahem…not I..)😅
I get this sort of superstition. The cultures that don't name their children at all for the first year or so also make sense to me.
Can you make a video How to official give a official name to their children. Is it the same with traditional chinese or Korean.
haha so funny
*Anh cám ơn em rất là nhiều nũa. Nhờ em, bây giơ anh biết giảng-nghĩa tại sao anh không biết Bernard là “tên khai sinh” anh khi anh còn 4 tuối.*
*Anh còn nhỏ một lần mà anh cảm thấy rất khó chiệu, trong vườn trẻ Caritas (Saigon, 1973), khi một trong những cô giáo anh xài cái tên Bernard dể nói về anh trong khi cỗ đang nói chuyện với một người khác*
(Bernard là một tên Pháp. “Tên ở nhà” anh là một tên Việt.)
Chim 🐦 means Bird 🐦
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
chim is a culture from chinese
hmmm 🤔 ... 😆 !!!
My name in English is Richard but gets shortened to Dick. Dick in Vietnam sounds like dit which a fart or backside. I can't win!
Ha ha!
I thought boys had a bird and girls a butterfly
Ha ha that’s correct. But ‘bird’ can also be used for both!
hehe.. just tried now. 👿👿👿
Ohhhhh! This is why Vietnamese parents will name their child after someone they hate. Then when they hit the child they don't feel so bad.
My vo oi disagree.
Cu den may translate to black penis but in a nickname informal setting would be taken as dark boy.
Funny lesson though.
I think although “cu” also means penis, it doesn’t necessarily have that meaning when used to address a boy or a guy. You can think of it like “dude” in English. Also, “cu” is more like a pronounce than a part of the name. For example, in the situation of your cousins “Cu Đen”, his parents or friends or someone older may call him like that, but if he had a little sister, I doubt if she would call him that way (may be she’d call him “Anh Đen”, that’s more appropriate).
Personally when texting with my friends and I need to refer to another friend, I prefer using “ku” to “cu”.
6:23 pu tin - that's arguably the ugliest name one could ever imagine.
Greetings from Ukraine, and thank you for interesting video.
Wrong. Cu means a boy child, not mean pen*s. Literal cu means children's pen*s, not pen*s. Then, cu was also used to call a very close man/boy and only used in his family.
nah, cu just mean penis. We use it to refer to a boy becasue they have penis :))
Ouch! Named after Putin.
Dear Annie. I like how you slant from the sides to ask the questions and answer from the centre. I figured that you were probably born in 1989 based on your Zodiac animal (snake) and that old family picture almost confirms it. Nice video, thank you. Oh and you are just as CUTE now as you were in 1993.