... but first, a vocab/language lesson:
nhậu : roughly translated as "a drinking party" with some food and lots of beer and alchy.
anh: a pronoun used for a male who is either a) older than the speaker b) the speaker's boyfriend c) the speaker when talking to someone younger than him or to his girlfriend d) the speaker's older brother -- similar to korean's "oppa"
em: a pronoun used for a female who is either a) younger than the speaker b) the speaker's girlfriend c) the speaker when talking to someone older then her or to her boyfriend d) the speaker's younger sister
chú: a pronoun used for an adult male who is either a) someone's uncle b) someone who is older than the speaker by at least a generation -- similar to korean's "ajusshi"
cháu: a pronoun used for a much younger speaker, with status as the speaker's niece/nephew/grand child
People use these pronouns and suffixes depending on their relationship with the other person so they can be changed from formal to informal pending on the status of the relationship.
This weekend is apparently a long weekend, lots of people get Monday and Tuesday off, so I have had the opportunity to hang out with a lot of friends and family members.
Earlier this week my bachelor uncle took me to a cafe where we enjoyed expensive drinks and nice music while being tended by young waiter and waitresses. As a general rule to all food service establishment, all waitresses are to call all male customers anh regardless of their age. So all the cute and young waitresses call my uncle anh while they should really have called him chú. It was half funny and half awkward because later, when my uncle asked, we found out that the all waitresses are younger than me by at least 2 years, so if anything, he could be their uncle too!
Tonight, I met up with one of my cousins. He is one of the older cousins I have, around early 40's. He was in the middle of a nhậu fest with his friends when I called so he picked me up and had me join him. I call my cousin anh because he is older than me, and his friend share the same status as anh. If we all count our ages and had meet under different circumstances, I would call those guys chú as they are much older than me and could probably have children who are my age or older. They were way happy that someone my age is calling them anh and isn't a waitress so beside hitting on the waitress, they also tried to flirt with me. Slightly gross I might say.
Local people and my family included have been very liberal about drinking. Vietnam doesn't have a drinking age, so kids aren't sneakingly chasing the bottle and people drink when they want so there isn't much terrible scenarios of alcohol binging and poisoning. And mostly, people drink beer, or rice wine, not hard liquor. Most people, especially men, like to nhậu whenever they can, just like in college when we find an excuse to drink whenever we can regardless of the time. So this weekend gives everyone the perfect excuse to drink, it's a holiday, we have nothing to do, why not party it up!
I learned tonight that the rule of the nhậu table is that, if one person picks up the glass to drink, everyone clinks their glasses and everyone drinks. I wasn't aware of this rule and kept sipping, so every time I picked up the glass, everyone picked theirs up until someone called me out. Who would have thought that I get to learn something new today?
Women don't do much drinking here, especially the older generation, and even when they do, they drink mostly beer, not rice wine or liquor so I felt a bit uneasy about drinking, but it wasn't that big of a deal as people don't seem to care much. My uncles and family friends seems happy because they've found someone else who could party with them.
My cousin was pretty buzzed and decided to call my dad at 5:00 am California time.
"Hi uncle, I'm with your daughter. How're you doing?"
"Wtf why are you waking me up??"
One of my cousin's friend took over the phone and asked my dad,
"Hi uncle, there are two of us here beside your nephew, which of us do you pick (for your daughter)?"
"Your mama you bitch" Then he hung up.
I don't like my dad, but he could be so funny sometime, and apparently everyone who knows him loves hanging around him because he apparently has a deadpan sense of humor. I am very much enjoying getting to know more about my family through other people's eyes. Seeing them outside the mom and dad light is helping me understand my parents more and potentially *gasp* care for (or love) them more.
The big weekend is the memorial for the country's founder, it's going according to the Lunar Calendar and is this Tuesday. I didn't even know about this holiday because it didn't exist ten years ago! and only learned about it from the banner hung around the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment