Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Vietnamese family has clear ranking – we don’t call each other by the neutral “I and you” as in English. We address each other by family positions: “anh em, chị em, bố con, mẹ con, ông cháu, bà cháu, dì cháu/con, chú cháu/con, bác cháu/con, dượng cháu/con, o cháu/con.

And the family positions carry with them responsibilities. Speaking briefly, a higher-ranked person is supposed to live well, as an example for lower-ranked persons (làm gương có các em các cháu). You have the honor to be in a high position, you also have the responsibility of good living, to act like a good example for the lower-ranked folks to look upto and immitate.

Each one of us has many people under his/her position – direct family members (gia đình nhỏ), big family members (đại gia đình or gia đình mở rộng), employees, studtents, asociation members, church members, member of all kinds of groups… Regardless of where you are in Việt Nam, we address each other by family ranks.

Viet Nam is one huge family of the entire nation. Each one of us has many lower-ranked people under us, for us to set good living examples, for them to follow.

Please be constantly conscious about our national family. This is a rare and precious characteristic of the Vietnamese culture, which mny countries do not have.

And always remember your responsibility to setup good examples for the younger/lower folks to look upto and follow.

And if you are an intellecttual, most of the people in the country would treat you with respect as higher rank than them, regarless of how old they are and how old you are. The elders would address you young intellectual as cô, cậu, or chú, respecfull terms for younger folks. The elders look upto and follow examples of younger intellectual too.

So, you live in a 100-million-person family. You haven high rank and high responsibily, to be a good example for many, many lower-ranked folks.

With compassion,

Hoành

© copyright 2024
Trần Đình Hoành
Permitted for non-commercial use
www.dotchuoinon.com