[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: making love language (Vietnamese or English?)

Kieu-Anh, I'd advise you to establish the validity of your assumption
FIRST before launching your criticism. Your post comes across to me as
presumptuous and thus quite irrelevant. 

You make two assumptions: (1) the originator is not Viet, (2) the originator
has some cruel intent. Both of which were yet proven, but you just have 
to launch very discomforting verbiage. My take is that there's quite a bit
of self-defensiveness in terms of racial and ethnic identity. At best, you're
attacking for the sake of attacking per the concoction of premises.

Vietnamese is a language that doesn't deal well with sexuality, and thus
it certainly would be an interesting question to ask. To illustrate, the
terms are: "la`m ti`nh", "ddu.", "cho+i", "du+'t". The first is way too
formal, the second vulgar, and the last three, depending on context, are
degrading. There's much sexual politics in a prudish culture, and language
reflects that.

There's nothing stupid that I see in the question. But then, I'm an idiot.

Best,
KyAnh


> Hi all,
> 
> I really don't know what to say to respond to the posting below, but I
> guess I can take a shot at it.
> 
> My first reaction to the posting was to ask, "who the hell would ask such
> a stupid question?"  I would like to ask why anyone would even think of
> asking a question like that.  Would this person "ttnt" ask that question
> of a Polish or a Czech American?  If not, it would hint to me that
> this person has internalized Orientalist fantasies of Vietnamese
> Americans, especially in terms of our sexuality.  Also, why are you asking
> the people on this list what language all Vietnamese Americans use while
> making love?  For one thing, not all Vietnamese Americans can even speak
> Vietnamese.  Now that we have been established in the US in significant
> numbers for
> over 20 years, a new generation of American-born, American-raised
> Vietnamese Americans is coming about, some of whom do not speak
> Vietnamese.  Also, as a 1.5 generation Vietnamese American, I am able to
> speak, read and write Vietnamese, but I have met quite a few other 1.5s
> who can't (including several of my own brothers).  For another
> thing, why does the writer assume that we can speak for all Vietnamese
> Americans?  Just a news flash: we are not all the same!  We are
> individuals who sometimes, believe it or not, think independently!  I
> really hate it when people ask me a question and take my answer to mean
> that ALL other Vietnamese and Asian Americans think the same.  Give me a
> break!!  
> 
> Also, why do you want to learn it in Vietnamese?  By asking the question
> you are telling me that you are NOT Vietnamese-speaking, and since
> statistically most Vietnamese Americans can speak Vietnamese, I'll just
> assume you're not one of us  (forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm taking my
> best guess, based upon your original posting).  This really sounds like a
> question that would come from a
> Rice Queen.  Even if I told you how to say these things (which I NEVER
> would) do you really think you're going to impress your future Vietnamese
> American "lovers?"  Chances are, anyone blind or mentally-colonized enough
> to do the deed with you isn't going to care what the hell you say in bed.
> 
> It irritates me when non-Vietnamese want to learn a few token phrases of
> Vietnamese to try and impress us (most of the time, they butcher our
> language, but some of us are just too nice or whitewashed to tell them how
> stupid they sound) with how culturally-open they are.  It sounds like the
> case of the colonizer using the language of the colonized to subjugate and
> objectify them.
> 
> Hope this helps in your quest to "make love."
> 
> Kieu-Anh H. King
> 
>  On Wed, 18 Dec 1996, Anonymous Poster wrote:
> 
> > ...to continue on the "language" topic, I'm wondering what language Vietnamese-
> > Americans use during making love? For my case I use English but love to
> > learn how to say it in Vietnamese (gio.ng Nam hay Ba('c gi` cu~ng ddu+o+.c :-))
> > 
> > ttnt
> > 
> >  -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Reply to <email> do NOT reply to <email>
> > Administrative questions should be sent to <email>
> >  VN-GBLF Home Page: http://neptune.netimages.com/gblf
> > 
> 
> 
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Reply to <email> do NOT reply to <email>
> Administrative questions should be sent to <email>
>  VN-GBLF Home Page: http://neptune.netimages.com/gblf
> 
> 


-------------------------------------------------------------------