tks
Borrowed “thanks” — thank you, keyboard-sized.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
Borrowed “thanks” — thank you, keyboard-sized.
Big-headed and still foolish — grown in size, not in sense.
Toxic — a coded respelling of the English word, with the digit 6 standing in for the "-xic" ending; said of poisonous people, relationships, or vibes, partly to slip past content filters.
with all of one's heart; completely dedicated
A man jilting his bride loses goods down the river; a bride jilting her groom repays it double — the old betrothal penalty table.
A wise man picks his wife in the crowded market; a wise woman picks her husband amid the ranks of soldiers — choose where character shows.
What matters boy, what matters girl — a child of duty and gratitude is the better birth — the verse against preferring sons.
Talented men and beautiful women — the classical matched pair; each sex graded on its old currency.
Striking poses and arranging appearances — performance in place of substance.
Texting shortcut for “trước” — before / first. “đi trc nha” = heading out first.
when bamboos grow old, young shoots spring up
The bamboo weeps for the shoot — a parent burying a child; grief in the wrong order.
Young bamboo bends easily — training is a property of greenness.
To advertise one thing but deliver another — deceptive marketing or bait-and-switch.
Knowing the crime and not reporting — concealment convicted as complicity.
Know sufficiency and be always sufficient — a life unhumiliated to its end.
No one knows the child like the father — parenthood is the longest observation.
Breakfast at dawn, lodging at dusk — the traveler's steady rhythm of road and rest.
Three at dawn and four at dusk — the monkey-keeper's shuffle; the same total, resold as a concession.
every cloud has a silver lining
... in two minutes.
... in fifteen minutes.
... in a minute.
... in an hour.
Unclear inside the house, already known out in the lane — the household's secrets commute faster than its members.
... in half an hour.
A firefly indoors, a torch outdoors — glow saved for the audience, dark kept for the family.
What in the marsh is lovelier than the lotus — green leaf, white bloom, gold stamens — near the mud yet never smelling of mud — Vietnam's emblem of integrity.
Warm within, calm without — the well-run household's climate report.
Honest words offend the ear — counsel's truest note is the one that grates.
to be loyal to the monarch and love the country; loyalty to the monarch and love for the country
The loyal fear no death; the death-fearing are not loyal — allegiance is priced in exactly one currency.
tourist information office
Announce it down the generations — a standing threat: obey, or the punishment will find you.
Sidewalk iced tea — Hà Nội's two-thousand-đồng institution: a plastic stool, a glass of trà đá, and the day's gossip. A place as much as a drink.
Blame the one who schemed too widely — plum already picked, and reaching to snap the peach besides.
Blame the nameless 'gentleman' — done with the flower, he breaks the branch and hawks it — the seducer's full itinerary.
When the wind crosses and the sky turns — the aches of changing weather; moods that turn with it.
Cross-grained in temper and habit — a nature that rubs everyone the wrong way.
Yielding to the elephant shames no one's face — stepping aside from the overwhelming is sense, not cowardice.
away from the watermelon rind, into the coconut shell
Rare birds and strange beasts — exotic treasures of the menagerie.
The chained water buffalo hates the water buffalo that grazes.
The fat buffalo hauls for the thin — strength's duty to carry what weakness can't.
When the strong-willed members of a group butt heads, the bystanders suffer.
The sore-backed buffalo shies at every passing crow — a wound installs its own lookout.
Buffaloes plow, horses are ridden — each creature issued its own employment at birth.
robbing the cradle
A buffalo's cough equals an ox's bellow — the great man's smallest ailment outweighs the small man's crisis.
No offers while the buffalo lives; a dozen knives when it falls — vultures respect only the moment of collapse.
The buffalo seeks the post, never the post the buffalo — the dependent goes to the anchor: servant to master, child to parent.
Trampled by buffalo or elephant, dead either way — the gambler's shrug: if losing, lose big.
Each field's buffalo grazes its own field — marry in the village, and let no outsider's beast in.
the bigger they are, the harder they fall
Slip-ups becomes more consequential, the more influence you have.
to impotent, unable to achieve or sustain an erection, having impotentia coeundi
Respect upward, yield downward — the well-ordered household's two directions of courtesy.
over or under par
Harmony above, concord below — the whole hierarchy at peace.
Tease the stork and it pecks your eye — bait the patient bird at your own risk.