Vietnamese Poem: "Don't Call Me 'Em'"

A poem by SEASSI 2008 Vietnamese students Jeanette and Bonnie.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• vietnamese
• vietnam
• poem
• poetry
• anh
• em

[kauffner]

"Em" translates as "dear." At least Vietnam itself is pleasantly free of this type of political correctness.

[SEASSI]

้haha, oh no you don't...don't pretend that there are no considerations of social (and often gender) power in pronoun choice in Vietnamese. and if you think Vietnam is "pleasantly" free of PC-ness, are you also happy it's "pleasantly" full of sexism which nobody will call you out on?

[tomoko96962000]

Phong ba bão táp không bằng ngôn ngữ Việt Nam.

[Daunamxauxi1]

Vietnamese languages is so beautiful. ''em'' (it mean is talk about woman) '' anh '' (it mean talk about men ), in English only have '' u ''. son talk with dad vocative '' u'',friend with friend vocative '' u '',grandparent with childs vocative '' u'',but in Vietnamese languages have different vocative. eg like : childs call grandparent is '' ông bà '',son vocative with dad is '' bố ''......... anyways Vietnamese still hard than Eng .

[bboySeraph]

@nguyenxmary

They're both Vietnamese, they are simply pointing out something that they find disturbing.

[nhocxinhicy9x]

@tomoko96962000 phong ba bão táp ko bằng ngữ pháp Việt Nam ^^

[koriko88]

@SEASSI I've always felt uncomfortable using "em" outside of a relationship even when there's clearly an appropriate age difference. It just seems like there's a lot of room for misinterpretation...but more often than not, people find it odd if I don't use "em" when it's called for. I stick to traditional in VN and modified pronouns in the West.

[boi510]

@SEASSI It is common that a stranger man can call a woman "em" if that woman appear to look younger than him. On the other hand, if a stranger man call a woman "chi", the woman may question " Am I look old? why does this man call me "chi"?" Therefor, when using the word "and" and "em" one have to consider the age differences as well. By the way, in general, most men like to be called "anh" but not all women like to be called "em" just like you :)

[huongkle05]

In a relationship, it is not just about status. You mentioned that we love each other equally why one need to be called "em"?  That's not understanding it correctly. In traditional vientam, a man's love for a woman is different. A woman love a man in a nurturing way while a man suppose to love a woman in a masculine way. For example, duty like taking out the trash is for a man to do while cooking and cleaning is for a woman to do. It's part of tradition and usually it plays out pretty well.

[Tweezy316]

This is a dumb argument. That is how most southeast asian languages are. Like Cambodian bong and oun. It's used in a variety of different ways just like anh and em. People need to grow up!

[06lanevomr]

@SEASSI When I see a girl that looks younger than me that I don't know, I would call her Em because I'm considering her as a younger sister. When I see a girl that look older than me, I would call her Chi because I consider her as older sister. Em can be use for younger males too. If I see a younger boy, I would call him Em too. "Em" is very universal.

[nguyenxmary]

Wow, if i didn't know better i'd think you was trying to be racist to the vietnamese kind, but then again. No, "em" and "anh" aren't use to strangers when your trying to get their attention its more like "co" and "chu" or whatever. It's also funny when you two clearly aren't vietnamese trying to speak in viet and trying to make the viet kind sound sexism. smh Please stick to your own culture and language. (:

[anewmecali]

Wow, the poem is so funny. I love the her Vietnamese accent. It's so sexy and nice.