When You Finally Think Vietnamese Is Easy… Then You Meet Wife's Family 🇻🇳

Welcome to Learning Vietnamese with the Wife and the Uncles and Aunts and Cousins and Pronouns. Nguyen has 17 aunts and uncles for both of her mom and her dad, so cumulatively. And that does include wives and then kids. If you include the wife and husband, so multiply by 2. So it's gonna be 34. And we don't count the kids yet, but yeah. So I like, you know, I understand pronouns quite easily in Vietnam. But when it comes to family pronouns, things get a lot more complicated. Because I know you have Bạc 2, Bạc 3, Bạc 4, Bạc 5, Bạc 6. And your dad is Bạc 6? Bạc 7. Okay, Bạc 7. And then Chú 8, Chú 9, and then Chú 10. Okay. Chú 10 is Út. Út? The youngest. Yeah, I remember Út. But Chú 10, được không? Được, cũng được. Okay. And then, your mom's side of the family, I know Dì and Cậu. Cậu. But you were just explaining something to me. So explain this, because this is... So, let's start with... I just spit. You see that coming out of my mouth? No. Okay, it's soup that you brought in. It's soup, yeah. So let's start with Đá Sài. So you know, the uncles. Yeah. Or in English, you just have uncle. Yeah, or names. Yeah. But in Vietnamese, we have uncles, Đá Sài, uncle mom's side. So Đá Sài, if the uncle is older than your dad or my dad, it has to be Bác. Yes. It's stressed. And then... I'm too sick. And then the uncle is younger than my dad would be Chú. So you know, you know immediately he's younger or older. Yeah, so I got that part down. Here, take this real quick. Yeah, I got that part down. It's just like... Because you know, sometimes when I say talk with, what is it, Bạc Sáo? Mm-hmm. Because some of your family members, like the ages, like some look like, I don't want to say younger or older, but it gets really confusing. Yeah, okay. So mom's side is a little bit simpler. So every uncle, doesn't matter younger or older, is Cậu. Cậu. Yeah, and Dì. Dì. Yes. But my mom's side is a bit different. Actually, my whole town is a bit different because they use Chinese pronouns. Yeah. Which is, my mom not Chinese, but it's just how the town is. And so, uncle's Cậu is called Cửu. Cửu. Yes, C-U, question mark, Cửu. Aunt's is Yí. Yí. Yeah, so Cửu 2, Cửu 3, Yí 4, Yí 5. Yeah, okay. And then... So, the brothers, like I call, let's say you're my big brother. Yeah. I call you Hiê. Hiê. Not Anh. Hiê. And then, the biggest brother, we can look it up again, but Tùa Hiê is Anh Hai. Tùa Hiê. Yes, and then sister, you know, right? Chế. Không phải Chế. Chế is Vietnamese, but in Mình Tây, Chinese, Chế. If I were to say Chế, is that okay? Được. But you would notice when you come to my hometown, people would call... That's okay. It's broken. People would call me Chế a lot. No matter if they know me or not. Chế a lot. And then, the uncles that marry your aunts. How you call it in... I don't know. I haven't even looked up English. Uncle-in-law. So, my uncle that marries my aunt? But that would be like family members marrying. Yeah. So, like incest. No, no, no. No. Your aunt's husband. Okay, so I would say my aunt's husband. Ah, okay. That's it? In English, yeah. I think so. Yeah, okay. So, in Vietnamese, we would call it like Dượng. Dượng is aunt's husband. But in my hometown, my mom says it's Tịa. Tịa. Đúng. We say Tịa. My Tịa Tư. Meaning that's like my husband and my aunt. We can stop from this, but... Yeah, a lot. Because it's like... Say for Tet, when I was at your hometown, I met... I don't remember whose side of the family she's on. I think it's your dad's side of the family. Yeah. Because it was with Anh Tân. Yeah. And she's 25, but I have to call her Cô. Yeah. So that's because... That is back... Because... Number something, back number. No, his... Ah, no. Her grandpa is the uncle of my grandpa. And he's older. My grandpa is older than her grandpa. Your grandpa is older than his grandpa. So you're grandpa's brother. No. It's your... It's the uncle of your grandpa. Yes. But my grandpa by age older than her grandpa. But older than his uncle. Yeah. So why would I call her Cô when she's... Because... A lot younger than me. Because her grandpa... Is younger than your... Now you married. So her... My grandpa become your grandpa. And her grandpa is the uncle of your grandpa. So from the dynamic tree, she is my uncle... She is my aunt. But that uncle... But... She's... You're... Grandpa's uncle is younger than your grandpa. By age. So why... She would need to call me back rather than I call her... Because... Her uncle... I go with your grandpa. But my... Then that's why. So if my grandpa call her grandpa uncle... Meaning her uncle... Meaning her... You're confused now. Meaning her grandpa... Yes. Have a... Have the... Bigger position in the family tree. Okay. So... Go by that. So... Her... Yeah. So her... Her would be my uncle... My... Aunt. Nope, no. Nope. Nope, no way. Yeah, so that's still super confusing. So if I were to call her M... Is that really bad? Yes. Oh, really bad? It depends. Depends because you... I'm a foreigner. Yeah. I'm a foreigner. Yeah. But... That... My... My family side is... Sometimes very relaxed. Yeah. Sometimes... Some people, they're very adamant to call you... Call her... Call them the right pronouns. Yeah. Some people don't care. Like me, I don't care. Like... When I speak with her family members... You know, because I've been practicing a lot more Vietnamese lately. And... It's really hard. Because speaking with a stranger, the pronouns are... It's clear. It's simple. Like, you're older than me. You're this age. Okay, use this pronoun. But... I get so confused when I talk with her family members. Because it's like... I... I get confused how to address myself. Because I'm talking to this person. Then I switch to this person. Then I forget what back he is. Or what Joe he is. Or who he's related to. Who. And then... Their children. You have to remember... If their parents is older or younger than my dad. And then how to say it. And younger or older than you. I know. Yes. So it's... Like... One difficulty right now. I have a pretty good vocabulary in Vietnamese. But it's my sentence structure. So when I have to like constantly think about the pronouns to use. It makes saying any sentence so hard. Because I'm so fixated on just the correct pronoun. And how to... So let's see if I can simplify it for you. Okay. For the audience. Okay. So you have... I understand the premise. But when it comes to your grandpa's uncle. And their family. So let's do... Let's do a little test. Okay. So my dad's side. Yeah. The brother that's older than my dad. How do you call them? The brother that's older than your dad is ba. Yeah. Brother that's older than... Younger than my dad. Joe. The sister that's older than my dad. Sister that's older ba. Đúng. And then the sister that's younger than my dad. Cô. Yes. But usually we call both cô. Okay. Cô. Okay. And my dad's side. Like middle, right? My dad's side's easier. O. Yeah. O. O is cô. The middle cô. Is this Minh Thai accent or Huế? Huế accent. Her dad's from Huế originally too, by the way. Yeah. But he uses Minh Thai accent but... He can switch. Okay. I'm just gonna keep it gul. You haven't heard my dad speak Huế accent, right? When I was at the funeral a few weeks ago. Yeah. You heard? I asked him to give me some examples in Huế. Did you understand? No. Okay. So that. So that's the side. Okay. My mom's side. What is called brothers? Gạo. I'm using standard Vietnamese gạo. Gạo. And dì for the sisters or aunts. Gạo. It's cữu. It's easy, right? Dì is y. It's also easy. Okay. Yeah, it's easy. So let's go to the marriage side. So on my dad's side, the wife of my uncle's. What would you call? I don't know. Well, I just call them the same pronoun that like... No. I call thím. But you know Bạc Sáo? When I talk to his wife, she wants to be called Bạc. Because she's older. Because her husband is older than my dad. Yeah, I know that. But I don't call her Bạc Thím. Not Bạc Thím. Just call her Bạc Nga. I just call her... Bạc. That's right, Bạc. But the wife of my younger uncle, you have to call thím. You haven't learned that word. No, I've heard the word before. Yeah. Thím. Okay. Thím tám. Thím chín. Thím mười. Okay. New word. And my mom's side, if her brother married somebody else, how you call his wife? So your mom's brother married somebody else? No. How you call my... I know. Me too. And I simplify it. So how you call my uncle, my mom's brother's wife? Your mom's? Brother's wife. Dì. No. Mỡ. You said this is... I'm genuinely curious. If you're Vietnamese, is this easy? Like, she says it's easy. It's normal. Because I grew up with this, so I... English is so much easier for this. I know. And then the husband of my mom's sister. So your mom's sister's husband. The husband of your mom's sister. I would just say bad, but I know it's wrong. Tía. Yeah. And then dad in Miền Tây. Yeah, bad. No. Tía. Should I call your dad Tía? Cũng được. Mắc cười. Yeah, I'll stick with bad. It's like... Okay. But like, say for example, your mom's younger sister has a daughter, Tuyết. Yeah. So she's older than you. You need to call her Em. Because your mom's older than her mom. But she's older than you. You still call her Em. Yeah. And then if the husband... Like, for mine, I don't care. So I just call whoever older than me. So I call her Chế. Yeah, but... So now since we're married, because you still call her Chế, just because she's older, I can call her Em now. Up to you. But say if her husband was like 80 years old, I would also call him Em. Yes. That's crazy. That's beauty. That's the beauty of pronouns. I know. I'm excited. I'll probably be going back to her hometown in maybe next week or a couple weeks. I'll be there alone for a little while, but it's like... So I'm expecting you... I'm going to call her Em now. Yeah. Because when I see her before, she's like Chế. I'm like... Không phải. Yeah. Em ơi. No. And I'm expecting you to call everybody the proper pronouns. If I'm just alone with her parents, okay. It's simple. But, you know, she's from a small hometown, so there's a lot of people that live nearby. So it's inevitable to meet up with a lot of the family members. I think you officially met more family members than me. I think so. Yeah. So this is learning pronouns for married couples.