I’m hoping that Monty or other Dopers familiar with South/Southeast Asia will help me out with some honorifics so I don’t insult anybody when I visit a university in Vietnam.
How do I address the president of a college within a university? I do not know his age in relation to me, only that his academic rank is higher than mine.
How do I address a man who is a graduate student in my U.S. college, but not my student, who is an adult (younger than me) and who is an employee of the Vietnamese college? In the U.S. he addresses me as “Professor Firstname,” and I address him in U.S. style as “Firstname,” but in Vietnam, will he be “Anh Firstname” or something else?
Do I refer to undergraduates in Vietnam as “Em”? How about graduate students (if I’m a visiting faculty member")? My own Vietnamese-American graduate students in the U.S. insist that they are “em” to me, not, for example, “co.”
I’ve read that “chi” may be used differntly in the North than in the South. On the Pimsleur CDs, it’s used for a woman of about one’s own age. Suggestions?
Other tips for honorifics?
I’ve an idea but since honorifics are important in the language, I don’t want to steer you astray. I’ll send your questions to my old Vietnamese teacher and then post the response.
That depends on what the settings will be: official or semi-official, and in what capacity you will be. The following answers are what I would do. YMMV.
Regardless of age, in formal settings, it is safest, as well as most appropriate, to always address the president of a college within a university as “ông” (male) or “bà” (female) and yourself as “tôi” in direct conversation with that person (never use the similar but highly unsophisticated term “tui” (use mostly in the South) in any situation except in private with close friends, or maybe where everyone is drunk, unless you want to be perceived as an uncouth person).
If he is much older than you, it would be OK to refer to him by his/her academic title, i.e. “Tiến sĩ” or “Thạc sĩ” (similar to calling medical doctor “Doctor”) if you know it and if it is higher than yours; if not, use “giáo sư” (“Professor”). If all else failed, fall back to “ông” or “bà”. When refer him/her to another person use this convention.
Yes. If he is not your student, you are “tôi” and he is “anh <first name>”. If he still calls you “thầy <first name>” or “giáo sư <first name>” (“Professor <first name>”) then you might refer to yourself as “thầy” (instead of “tôi”) but he is always “anh <first name>” If you know him well, you can call him “em”.
Basically, every student is “em” to you but I would use it sparingly (explanation below). As a faculty member, you are entitled to call students “em” (both male and female students) but as a visiting faculty member it would be safe and dignify that you should stay with (2) above. In this case, for female students it would be “chị <first name>” and not “cô”.
I don’t know what you meant by your comment about the difference in local usage, but “chị” can be used for most cases, except when the person is obviously older than your own mother, or younger than 15.
On the term “em”: It can be use as a brotherly term, or as an endearment term, or both. But now in Viet Nam, it is evident to me that the term is “corrupted” by over usage in both literary and daily practices. You should be careful using this term. This over usage, in addition to the multitude of bastardized and nonsensical words “invented” in the last 20 years or so, really “cheapens” (for lack of a better word) its meanings. Call me old fashion, but I would not go around calling every female I see “em” (can be interpreted as calling the ladies “babe” indiscriminately)
On a lighter note, maybe you should just call everyone “đồng chí” (comrade) and be done with it. It’s PC, and they can’t correct you without being seen as an uppity, anti-revolution bourgeois (and those who really are such will love you for it!).
