Vietnamese language translation

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calib_forever

Your Viet friends must be from the North. The people from the South use the word "máºp". Fat is mostly an endearing term there. When someone calls you fat, it's not out of malice or intent to mock like in the US. So, you should not feel offended.
By the way, the word is spelled bÃ©o. When saying it, the tone is up.

ong jon

.i wish my old army buddy could read the replies here[ no i will not send it to him] .he is very over weight. this past winter we traveled around viet nam together and many viet namese would take notice of his obvious size . they would often pat his belly and comment on how big he was..... this hurt his feeling immensely... and i certainly understand that but when i tried to explain the viet namese would never say anything to intentional insult him he became very angry and frustrated w/ me " because i took their side " i was NEVER "taking their side" [ i know very well that sort of thing is considered an insult to an american and i knew it hurt him deeply] i was only trying to explain what i KNOW very well about the viet namese feeling about fat people. i weigh 160lbs , when i loose 5lbs over there my viet friends tell me i look sickly ! my viet namese godson upon seeing a photo of my american niece wrote her what he thought was a complimentary letter saying , " i think you are very fat "..... needless to say i didn't deliver it..... maybe the viet namese should take the time to learn about the customs of others... whether it is at home or abroad ever since i was a child here in the usa we've been told over and over "mind the customs of foreigners".... when are "foreigners" [ here and abroad] going to consider our customs??? but to answer your question more directly and simply.... only [ esspecially in years past] wealthy and powerfull people ate well enough to be fat ... and it is considered a positve thing . i also believe that they thing americans can be or do anything thay want so when someone is fat even obiece its because they choose to be.

TanongNalang

" In Vietnam, people traditionally do not have a varied enough diet, and have to deal with harsh weather and heavy physical work, which is why only few Vietnamese are fat. And so when they see someone fat, they think that they must be well off, they can look after themselves and are proud of the fact. "
extracted from http://czechkid.eu/si1250.html (Story 2, near the end of the paragraph)

rick m

You're friends are from the north of Vn and what they are saying is HEO (Hay-Oh). Heo is the word for pig AND it is not an insult.
You are probably bigger (and healthier looking) than them.
Heo is a very revered figure in the Chinese calender.
Our son will be born in a week or two,,, (2007 is the year of the pig, very lucky) My Viet mother in law wanted my wife to have Ceasarian on 7/7/07 cuz she figured the boy would be that much luckier... Go figure. It's a different culture.

woot woot

i agree with cali-fever and rick m. north and south vietnam are kinda (or very) different. they are not insulting you. i was called map (i can't put the accent mark on the a) and also hop mit (i think i spelled the first part wrong) but it meant jackfuit seed. i was chubby. it was like a pet name or a nick name.

My Chi Tran

Dont be worry, I usually call my daught << My Beo >> b/c she was so fat when she was a little girl .

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Vietnamese language translation - "Beo"?