I believe All China is our Ancestor. We are family and Most people (Chinese) seperate because they want to travel in other countries (like Japan, Korean, American, Indonesian & etc). + it’s really complicated. Some ancestor are enemies. China are the most populated country in the world, imagine if 1000 billions Chinese people lives in China, it could fit lol. The reason why China are the most populated because of Forcing by their parents, aunt, uncle or grandparents.
+Mary JieZoe Hahahaha!! I had to use 4 sheets of A4 paper. You just can't have one sheet of paper when you have 19 aunts and uncles , 58 cousins and at least 40 nieces and nephews.
this is why us black people just call everyone their cousins apart from immediate family, even family friends. so much easier since we have massive families too
This is why every time when a family comes over or when I go to China for a visit I ask my parent, how do I call them? I ask them all the time. All the time. Every time. yup.
@@gautamgulde9456 Ignore what the other user told you because we definitely _do_ have step family members, half family members, etc in China. The breakdown: 后妈 （hòu mā）= step mother 后爹 （hòu diē）= step father 继哥 （jì gē）= step older brother 继弟 （jì dì）= step younger brother 继姐 （jì jié）= step older sister 继妹 （jì mèi）= step younger sister Also, fun fact, one of the first stories of Cinderella came from ancient China so stepmothers are definitely a thing in Chinese culture.
It a bit hard to learn all the names for the different people, but at the same time they are making things easy for themselves. With just one word they can instantly tell you who their talking about instead of having to say "my great granddaughter from my daughter´s side husband".
It's actually easier than it seems in the video. Besides mom dad grand blabla, there are only 5 basic titles 姨，姑，舅，叔，伯. Understand these five then follow the patterns: 1 The five basic titles are used to address siblings of all your elders including parents and grandparents. Use the five as prefix when addressing grandparent's siblings. e.g. 伯爷爷(uncle-grandpa) 2 Those with the same family name are assumed closer, thus those who don't, such as parents of your mother and children of your daughter, have the prefix 外(out). e.g..外孙，外公 3 (Helpful one) Whenever there's a cousin involved, whether yours or your parents' or grandparents', you use the word 表 or 堂 before everything. 表for those with different surnames, 堂for those sharing the same family name. e.g..表姑姑（cousin-auntie) 4 To address whoever marries your relatives, put suffixes 妈 or 夫 after your relative's title. e.g. 姐夫(sister-husband) Doesn't apply to elder brother's or younger uncle's wives, don't know why.
Bradxyz it just depends on the side you are talking about. if you are talking about your wife's sister, you just call her just like your wife does regardless of your age. it's just about your title. you are the husband, then you can call your mother in law Mom even if you are only 2years younger.
@@TestingBradley nothing about the age. In some big family, a old man may call a little baby grandpa or something like it. Sometimes you are in a same class in school with you grandson, awkward, but you must call it right, at least back in the family. We don't call others name, it's impolite.
@@TestingBradley what ever your wife call them, you follow, the easiest part. if you are 81,and your wife is 18.and her sister is 19. you call her big sister just like your wife call her. Husband the same.
In different places of China，we also have different names for them. I'm not talking about dialect，I'm talking about some vocabulary that mean the same thing.
I am a Chinese and I love and am proud of our tight and huge family tree. Each branch of our family tree is an opportunity of help when you are in trouble.
I actually understood 90% of this because I meet my extended family very often. It's helpful when you're trying to figure out their position in the family.
I remember when I saw this video for the first time thanks to 9gag I was like omg this is so confusing but interesting and this video gave me motivation to study Chinese and now my Chinese it's getting better and better :)
This stuff is easier to remember when you actually have a chinese family and just regularly call them by their "terms". I actually never really realized how complicated this was until I watched this.
I do that all the time. It's impossible to remember all of it. Both my mom and dad got 7 siblings. Image the pain. Also, I got total of 4 pairs both paternal and maternal grands.
Do you mind if I record this and slow down the audio something like 85%? Then I can listen to it in my car for say, 4 or 5 hundred hours until it sinks in.
But this is not even the confusing part! =D It only really gets confusing when it comes to your grandparents siblings extended family. (a.k.a. your parent's cousins). Yes, they each have their own 'names' as well. And there is also the numerical system, when you have more then one sister for example. Your eldest sister will be 大姐 (Big sister), your second eldest sister will be 二姐(second sister), 三姐, 四姐 and so on. And yes, it applies to every single aunt/uncle/grandaunt/granduncle/sister's husbands/brother's wife etc.. etc... ... I guess you kind of get the hang of it when your Chinese parents have 9 other siblings. =)
If your father is the fourth son of your grandparents, and your grandparents fifth child is a female, do you call that fifth child "fifth aunt" (because she is the fifth child) or "fourth aunt" (because she is the fourth daughter)?
@@jessicag630 No, you use the number only for the same rank, so if you have only one aunt, then you just call her aunt. If the grandparents have five sons and five daughters, they rank based on the same title, so if the youngest is a daughter, then you would call her "fifth aunt".
Also in my family there is this story that is told all the time. My Dad comes from the countryside and my family lived there for about 400years, so lots of people are somehow (distantly!) related to us. So family meals, even when I grew up, involved my grandparents and other family members discussing how various people are related to us. There is a family in our family tree at some point that had like 12 or 13 kids. This throws the generations off as there was such an age gap. Also, most people who are related to us, are somehow related to us through this family. So they get discussed a lot! Let's say their name was Middleton. My Dad as a little boy, heard these conversations all the time. And it's complicated to understand. To this day I'm one of the few people in my friendships who understands the differences between first, second and third cousins and also how "removed" they are. Eg first cousin twice removed, or second cousin once removed, etc (basically removed is if it's someone from a different generation - so my (first) cousin's child, is my first cousin once removed.) I learned that after years of having it explained every time one of us children asked. It basically took my whole childhood for me to fully grasp it. Anyway, back to my Dad. He heard these conversations and came away with the impression that you that Middleton was a type of relationship. He thought for years that he had first cousins, second cousin, third cousins and Middletons!
Every time I return to my parents' hometown during Chinese New Year, I feel like I'm in a reeducation camp. Yes. The old people will educate me about the kinship terms. EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
Would it be disrespectful ? Probably yes. But honestly, I don't think its that big of a problem if I miscall my mom's aunt or my dad's uncle's cousin. As for my ethnicity, I am Chinese. This method is antique and outdated anyways. I'm not a fan of this patriarchal system. How, people from the mother's side are regarded as "outsiders". There's advantages to a lack of differentiation though, if I'm talking about my 外孫女 you instantly know who I'm talking about. Where as, in a language like English. I have to say "my daughter's daughter" or "my granddaughter, _name_". Since this system is deeply rooted in Chinese culture and widely used I don't expect it to change. Now, I don't know if this is just in my experience. But often, the people whom are "outsiders" are not treated up the same standards as the father's "insiders" side of the family. I don't see that as a good thing at all. I think both sides should be weighed equally in both title and reality. This world, has for most of history been a patriarchal one. And while genders are *not* equal in roles and biology. They should be equal under law and title. Children should either be named after both (like the Spanish) or whoever cares more about their last name. But really, at the end of the day... its just a name. I do not care about your title. I will treat everyone with the same levels of respect and I will expect nothing *less* in return.
To be honest, I really like the specificity of the system despite the fact that it's more complex. For the grandparents, though, more formal and official terms are zumu and zufu for the paternal side, and wai zumu and wai zufu for the maternal side.
In different parts of China, these terms can be quite different. Maternal grandparents for example is different in the south than north. I have never heard Female's in-laws called 奶奶 and 老爷. For me and most of China, it's 婆婆 and 公公
***** I think it is your preference really. You can call her jie jie out of respect but you don't really have to and it wouldn't reflective badly on you if you don't. Her official relations to you is 大姨子 da yi zi. But you don't call her by that. It's used in when explaining your relationship to other people.
Watching this video makes me happy that most of my family lives in HK where I never see them. Ever. So I don't have to call them a bunch of complicated names. I probably shouldn't have said that but yeah.
What the eff this is so complicated I never follow this and most of my relatives live here... then again, I'm so "western-washed", meaning I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, which probably plays into that... still, so complicated, she lost me at "Mom is mama"
All i have to know is what to call everybody on my dad’s side... Which is totally not hard _at all_ ’cause my mum’s side lives in HK. I’m considered white-washed. But like, i speak mandarin and cantonese, i show proper respect and etiquette to my elders and blablabla and i follow most of the rules. I still go to chinese school. In just not a FOB.
I’m Chinese and I find that a lot of these term I use for different parts of the tree. For example: I use 老爷 for my maternal grandpa, I use dàyí (can’t find the words) for my moms sister.
Anyone else watch this for their Chinese Class? I have watched many Off The Great Wall videos for my Chinese Class. This is a great channel for people who want to learn Chinese.
This is pretty much the story of my life LOL. My grandmother on my mother's side has over one hundred family members, who are all closely knotted. Every single time I go back to China I have a hard time knowing who's who. It only got into the grandparents level here. Wait until all the grand-uncles, second cousin, third cousin thing starts, then it gets complicated. LOL
01:54 to write: If you are a female 🚺 your brother's son in Chinese character is your "姪仔" and your brother's daughter is your "姪女". or If you are a 🚹 male your brother's son in Chinese character is your "侄仔" and your brother's daughter is your "侄女".
i gave up on that so long ago now im like "yeah, hello i know you" *waits for my sisters to call them something and they be like "why arent you adressing me?" *me and my sisters look at each other for help*
In Filipino: If a woman is older than you, for the exception of your mother and your grandmother, you call her tita. (Tee-tah) If she is slightly older than you, she is your ate. (Ah-teh) If a man is older than you, for the exception of your father and your grandfather, you call him tito. (Tee-tō) If he is slightly older than you, he is your kuya. (Koo-yah) Not that complicated...
I'm gonna save this video to finally recognize who the f are the married people during the wedding ceremonies of my last 20 years in which I was invited (forced).
There is more than one way of calling all your families..... apparently there are 2 mainstream ways (YES, ANOTHER COMPLEX SET OF NAMES) e.g: I actually call my mum's mum, which is my grandma - 外婆 , and her dad - my grandpa - 外公. people might think why the hell they have so many names, that's because Chinese tends to take the "male is the most important" idea seriously, it all evolved around this idea. e.g: you keep your father's surname, thus your mother's parents theoretically shouldn't treat you as a family, because you don't have the same surname. Hence the name: 外孙，外婆，外公 (outside grandson, outside grandma, outside grandpa) Many Chinese kids had this experience, and me been one of them never understand why the hell by not having their surname means you should be treated badly. Furthermore, I don't understand why you need to put all your money and effort into your drug/gambling addicted son and choosing to abandon a high achieving daughter. How the fuck is making your drug addicted son happy gonna help you or him in any shape or form?? at the same time forcing the high achieving daughter to stop school and reduce her living cost just so that you can buy more drug for your son and let him gamble more. Sometimes, I am really frustrated with this fucked Chinese logic. SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK?!! PS: I'm a guy, and I am telling a true story of my good friend(female) family.
Make her your equal wife and give her your surname and live happily ever after xD Or encourage her to become a feminist businesswoman then make her family believ in her too :D:D
OMG, these videos you guys made about Chinese heritage is soooooo.. true and authentic! I know it because I'm Chinese (descent) too, although not from one of the English speaking countries, I can't believe all the stereotypes, parenting, family stuff are sooo similar... *amazed* Salute!
Ruslan Volkonsky But actually they'll not. The Chinese birth rate in cities like Shanghai and Beijing is below average in the world, and Chinese government is encouraging people to have more kids~of course now only in more developed areas, but in far countrysides people never stopped having more kids anyway~
Actually the population is not really declining but they are trying to change the one child policy due to the major gender imbalance which is causing many guys to not be able to find a wife.
Lao wai here! My mom's mom and dad had my mom and her two younger siblings, my aunt and uncle. My aunt has one male cousin who's younger than me. All of my cousins on my dad's side are from my dad's older sister, all of them are older than me, female, and almost all of them are married and have sons, some are older than me while some are younger, and two of them have one daughter each , both younger than me. Mom's Mom is what? Mom's Dad is what? Mom is 妈妈. My younger sister is 妹妹. Mom's younger sister is what? Mom's younger sister's son is what? Mom's younger brother is what? Dad is 爸爸. Dad's older sister us what? Dad's older sister's daughter is what? Dad's older sister's daughter's husband is what? Dad's older sister's daughter's son older than me is what? Dad's older sister's daughter's son younger than me is what? Dad's older sister's daughter's daughter younger than me is what?
Mom's Mom is 外婆 in Mandarin and 婆婆 in Cantonese. Mom's Dad is 外公 in Mandarin and 公公 in Cantonese. Mom is 妈妈. My younger sister is 妹妹. Mom's younger sister is 阿姨. Mom's younger sister's son is 表弟 Mom's younger brother is 舅舅 just as older brother. In short, anyone on my mom's side is considered "external" 外, and the cousins on your mom's side is given the term 表, such as 表弟 or 表姐. Dad is 爸爸. Dad's older sister is 姑妈. Dad's older sister's daughter is 表妹 or 表姐 depending on whether she is younger or older than you. 妹 is younger sister, 姐 is older sister. Dad's older sister's daughter's husband is 表妹夫 or 表姐夫. 夫 means the husband of. Dad's older sister's daughter's son older than me is 表儿甥 with 甥 meaning nephew. Dad's older sister's daughter's son younger than me is ....Well, I don't think your nephew is younger than you, so yeah.... Dad's older sister's daughter's daughter younger than me is...again, I don't think your cousin's daughter or your niece would be younger than you.
Much respect to whomever gets both their names AND family tree positions right. Imagine having a little cousin and trying to explain to him/her where the hell she is in the family tree...
it takes 4 minutes to say every family member in Chinese but on speed run.. DAMN! well, better get started, so my brother's wife's sister's second child that is a girl is ...
Kovaxim The Random We don't have a name for such a far relative so you can just call her by her first name since she is from a younger generation than you (:
Actually，people from southern China and northern China call these relatives in different way. For example，in the south we call mother's mother 外婆，but in the north， they call 姥姥. Besidess，in this video，there are some mistakes，there is no 伯娘，we call her 伯母.
For more Hispanic family you have you aunts and uncles aka your tios and tias and the cousins that are significantly older than you are also refered to as tio or tia and then you got your grandparents which they are called nana/abuela and tata/abuelo and your godparents aka your ninos and ninas.
echoeddra8on We count our parent's cousins as (Tios/Tias) uncles & aunts, I call my older cousins cousins, but once they reach their 30s I can begin to call them Uncles/Aunts.
My older cousins are primos,One of those cousin's nickname is Tata,so that's what I call him Primo Tata. My grandpa because he's Italian we call him Nono and our Latino grandma is called Nona just because she is married to him. But we also call them Abuelos not Nana & Tata. An my godparents are my Comadre & Compadre.
It's pretty cool that in Chinese you can say there "name thang" and people know exactly what you are talking about, and this shows how mutch the culture values family.
You guys are great! I found this while searching for fun ways to teach my 1/4 Chinese daughter how to speak Mandarin in a fun way. Makes me proud to be 1/2 Chinese. Looks like I need to watch that clip next!!! Subscribed and keeping in touch. Thank you for what I've seen so far! ;)
believe it or not this is still simpler than my family tree at least they all have titles so your not like Lisa is that uncle so and so daughter no that grandmas sisters husband child
+Kelsie LeCrone Just out of curiosity, do you use a different name to call and refer to your aunts and uncles from different sides of the family? Like, do you call your dad's brother something different from what you call your mum's brother?
+Kelsie LeCrone Oh, thanks. In my family, my nieces and nephews can call me Auntie Elaine( in Mandarin) but they use the system like in the video to call their mum's and dad's siblings. I have to greet my aunts and uncles using a variation of those terms in dialect.
Before we go visit family I always ask my mom how to call them and them try to memorize it as fast as possible Xd sigh... Why can;t we just have aunt, uncle, cousins etc. like evryone else? T-T
Линь Чан LOL of course you don't look like one, that's why I ask... because I thought you said somewhere that you had similar difficulties with calling your relatives... So I was super curious !! Russian looking Chinese is surely rare. :P PS: I'm Chinese, but grown up in Australia.
婆婆，公公are rather not common names for grandparents from mother's side. those names are rather for parents from the husband's side!!!! this is a small mistake..In China, 外公，外婆 are much more popular. or 姥姥，姥爷！！please pay attention to it!
OH. MY. GOD 🤯 Now I know why there are so many different names being called when I watch Chinese dramas.... I really love how everyone has a different name! Wow that's pretty cool! You wouldn't have to explain which someone in your family is to someone outside of it cause they each have their own special name ❤
My family is either really lax about this, decided it wasn't worth being so complicated, or they have no idea. At this point it's a toss up. I'm years late, but thanks for the video!
I'm not only confused at the chinese names, but AMAZED at how you had each one look different.
SAME
There are different names in different places. haha
yes... because they are different
Could be based on her family
I believe All China is our Ancestor. We are family and Most people (Chinese) seperate because they want to travel in other countries (like Japan, Korean, American, Indonesian & etc). + it’s really complicated. Some ancestor are enemies. China are the most populated country in the world, imagine if 1000 billions Chinese people lives in China, it could fit lol. The reason why China are the most populated because of Forcing by their parents, aunt, uncle or grandparents.
When your teacher asks for a family tree and an A4 sheet of paper just isn't enough.
+Mary JieZoe lol, had to do a family tree project for a class in high school, only one with a nearly full posterboard, and still wasn't complete
+Mary JieZoe Hahahaha!! I had to use 4 sheets of A4 paper. You just can't have one sheet of paper when you have 19 aunts and uncles , 58 cousins and at least 40 nieces and nephews.
No, just one side, but it was a hell folding it up. Seriously, mine was like one of those pop-up books
My family tree has a book. Literally the thickness of yellow pages. One book each, for both my mom's side and my dad's
NO KIDDING
I'm trying to make a family tree of MY family
A paper of 1 meter by 80 cm
CANT EVEN FIT MY DAD'S SIDE
This isn't a family tree....
It's a family forest :0
The Last Dart LMAO I'm literally crying
when they all died guess it call a deforestation family
Lynda The Pineapple Head lmfao
The Last Dart My parents laughed at your comment.
The Last Dart ikr
The first half can be summed up in one word in english: cousin
Oliver Li but it isn't that effective you have to say sich and how old and gender bla bla bla and if you house use this you only need a little prase
That's why I don't want to learn Chinese and got my whole family mad. :V I love English.
Willy Anugrah Cahyadi, that's a RIP if one hurtle stops you from learning something.
And the elder bitches will talk to your parents for your lack of respect because you called them "Cousin"
"But wait, they had kids too!"
And this is why we don't have family reunions
lol
Lol i'm Chinese i have like 250 people in my family the most of them i don't even know
+Zoey Zhang I know how you feel haha this always happens in my family...all the names haha
張樂兒Zoey · 我表姐大我三十岁我还以为她是我姨妈呢。
this is why us black people just call everyone their cousins apart from immediate family, even family friends. so much easier since we have massive families too
It's so complicated that it confuses even native speakers of Chinese.
RIP me
It's a nightmare when Chinese Lunar Year gathering
@@pencrunch6208 same i knew this in kindergarten
Ah yes. Its a nightmare at family gatherings. EVERY SINGLE TIME I FPRGET NAMES HOW DO MY PARENTS REMEMBER THEM ALL AHUSDHUJHSFG
@@thatweirdguywhostalkspeopl1908 ikr! Especially at this time when u go to a gathering......
This is why they introduced the one child policy.
+Amyna hahahahahahaha well point
+Amyna :-)
+Amyna ROFL
Haha. lol
你会说话中文吗？
This is why every time when a family comes over or when I go to China for a visit I ask my parent, how do I call them?
I ask them all the time.
All the time.
Every time.
yup.
That's ok.
relatable.. me too. i ask my mom ALL THE TIME 😂
Jenny Feng not always for me. I dont really have THAT many family members, although yes, there is some slight confusion sometimes
same here 😂
EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Same.
The Chinese Family Tree is definitely the most complicated thing ever
But wait, they have kids too!
What about step mother, step father,step son, step daughter etc.
@@gautamgulde9456 We don't have that in china
@@depufull 👍👌ok
@@gautamgulde9456 Ignore what the other user told you because we definitely _do_ have step family members, half family members, etc in China.
The breakdown:
后妈 （hòu mā）= step mother
后爹 （hòu diē）= step father
继哥 （jì gē）= step older brother
继弟 （jì dì）= step younger brother
继姐 （jì jié）= step older sister
继妹 （jì mèi）= step younger sister
Also, fun fact, one of the first stories of Cinderella came from ancient China so stepmothers are definitely a thing in Chinese culture.
It a bit hard to learn all the names for the different people, but at the same time they are making things easy for themselves. With just one word they can instantly tell you who their talking about instead of having to say "my great granddaughter from my daughter´s side husband".
Loneytoon9 so aren't they technically expressions/ideas and not words like, mum, sister?
Lord Commander
Yeah, they are expressing expressions and ideas because that's what words do
That's the point. The language is designed to easily tell who is who in a family.
Its very specified, instead of generalising aunts uncles or cousins. It also adds in formalities and "social levels" as a sign of respect.
It's still harder than saying long sentences because they r confusing
My head hurts now.
ashfromny same
I'm Chinese and I've long since given up on any of this. It's actually really impressive that she can remember all that.
when even ur Chinese friends get confused
It's actually easier than it seems in the video. Besides mom dad grand blabla, there are only 5 basic titles 姨，姑，舅，叔，伯.
Understand these five then follow the patterns:
1 The five basic titles are used to address siblings of all your elders including parents and grandparents. Use the five as prefix when addressing grandparent's siblings. e.g. 伯爷爷(uncle-grandpa)
2 Those with the same family name are assumed closer, thus those who don't, such as parents of your mother and children of your daughter, have the prefix 外(out). e.g..外孙，外公
3 (Helpful one) Whenever there's a cousin involved, whether yours or your parents' or grandparents', you use the word 表 or 堂 before everything. 表for those with different surnames, 堂for those sharing the same family name. e.g..表姑姑（cousin-auntie)
4 To address whoever marries your relatives, put suffixes 妈 or 夫 after your relative's title. e.g. 姐夫(sister-husband) Doesn't apply to elder brother's or younger uncle's wives, don't know why.
Bradxyz it just depends on the side you are talking about. if you are talking about your wife's sister, you just call her just like your wife does regardless of your age. it's just about your title. you are the husband, then you can call your mother in law Mom even if you are only 2years younger.
@@TestingBradley nothing about the age. In some big family, a old man may call a little baby grandpa or something like it.
Sometimes you are in a same class in school with you grandson, awkward, but you must call it right, at least back in the family.
We don't call others name, it's impolite.
@@TestingBradley what ever your wife call them, you follow, the easiest part. if you are 81,and your wife is 18.and her sister is 19. you call her big sister just like your wife call her.
Husband the same.
Thanks
I am a Chinese. Cool, right? Well...
I got lost already.
+Christie Valda same :D
same
Christie Valda
Hey you try not getting lost
+Christie Valda +1 every time I meet some new relative, I have to consult my parents first
Tianwen Ma i know right.
In different places of China，we also have different names for them. I'm not talking about dialect，I'm talking about some vocabulary that mean the same thing.
+Lawrence Jiang in my hometown, instead of call mother's brothers 舅舅，we call mother's older brother 舅爹 and younger brother 舅舅，
Like in the video maternal grandmother is 婆婆 but I call my grandmother 外婆?
we call our mum’s mum 姥姥 and dad姥爷，we call dad's older brother 大爷。it’s just too complicated.
@@Ummmmmmmm841same are you north Chinese?
That moment when you realize your whole life might not be long enough to remember and understand this four-minute lesson.
Ahh，the beauty of Chinese. This is what happens when the culture is around 5000 years old.
I am a Chinese and I love and am proud of our tight and huge family tree. Each branch of our family tree is an opportunity of help when you are in trouble.
I'm Chinese yet watching this video confused me..T^T
hahaha
Josephine Wu and that's just the basics...
Same
I actually understood 90% of this because I meet my extended family very often. It's helpful when you're trying to figure out their position in the family.
I remember when I saw this video for the first time thanks to 9gag I was like omg this is so confusing but interesting and this video gave me motivation to study Chinese and now my Chinese it's getting better and better :)
This stuff is easier to remember when you actually have a chinese family and just regularly call them by their "terms".
I actually never really realized how complicated this was until I watched this.
lmao whenever i go to family meetings i ask my mom before hand who's there so i dont have to rmb all that ^^
I do that all the time. It's impossible to remember all of it. Both my mom and dad got 7 siblings. Image the pain. Also, I got total of 4 pairs both paternal and maternal grands.
Diaz Flamberge dang :O
Do you have the same complicated naming system in Japanese as well?
EvolutionismAnti-Science Lie it's not nearly as bad as this
This is why i try to avoid meeting relatives cuz I'm going to call them the wrong title and look like an complete idiot!
Who drew those!? They look amazing! Did you do a draw my life yet??
Do you mind if I record this and slow down the audio something like 85%? Then I can listen to it in my car for say, 4 or 5 hundred hours until it sinks in.
That's the most complicated family tree ever
But this is not even the confusing part! =D
It only really gets confusing when it comes to your grandparents siblings extended family. (a.k.a. your parent's cousins). Yes, they each have their own 'names' as well.
And there is also the numerical system, when you have more then one sister for example. Your eldest sister will be 大姐 (Big sister), your second eldest sister will be 二姐(second sister), 三姐, 四姐 and so on.
And yes, it applies to every single aunt/uncle/grandaunt/granduncle/sister's husbands/brother's wife etc.. etc...
... I guess you kind of get the hang of it when your Chinese parents have 9 other siblings. =)
If your father is the fourth son of your grandparents, and your grandparents fifth child is a female, do you call that fifth child "fifth aunt" (because she is the fifth child) or "fourth aunt" (because she is the fourth daughter)?
@@jessicag630 No, you use the number only for the same rank, so if you have only one aunt, then you just call her aunt. If the grandparents have five sons and five daughters, they rank based on the same title, so if the youngest is a daughter, then you would call her "fifth aunt".
i thought it is family forest
if i can ever get this right, i'll be able to conquer the world.
Solution: call everybody "hey yo"
hey yo=no respect.....=you get no respect at all.......
***** hehe sorry ir mean hey you... XD Spanish autocorrect :)
***** Still disrespectful ^^
But if you say like in english: Miss/miss is or mister ^^
@@unoki99 miss 'is'???
Autocorrect *misses*/ *mrs.*
Also in my family there is this story that is told all the time. My Dad comes from the countryside and my family lived there for about 400years, so lots of people are somehow (distantly!) related to us. So family meals, even when I grew up, involved my grandparents and other family members discussing how various people are related to us. There is a family in our family tree at some point that had like 12 or 13 kids. This throws the generations off as there was such an age gap. Also, most people who are related to us, are somehow related to us through this family. So they get discussed a lot! Let's say their name was Middleton. My Dad as a little boy, heard these conversations all the time. And it's complicated to understand. To this day I'm one of the few people in my friendships who understands the differences between first, second and third cousins and also how "removed" they are. Eg first cousin twice removed, or second cousin once removed, etc (basically removed is if it's someone from a different generation - so my (first) cousin's child, is my first cousin once removed.) I learned that after years of having it explained every time one of us children asked. It basically took my whole childhood for me to fully grasp it. Anyway, back to my Dad. He heard these conversations and came away with the impression that you that Middleton was a type of relationship. He thought for years that he had first cousins, second cousin, third cousins and Middletons!
Kids,your homework is easy,just have to memorize relative's names.
The relative's name:
Every time I return to my parents' hometown during Chinese New Year, I feel like I'm in a reeducation camp.
Yes. The old people will educate me about the kinship terms. EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
Every time they expect me to call everyone by there name lol hell nah
Fuck that, I'll just be like: YO!
Yup, don't want to get beat up by slippers! X(
XtarShoter it would be disrespectful, and u t not Chinese, so u don't need to worry a this shxt and just chill.
Would it be disrespectful ? Probably yes. But honestly, I don't think its that big of a problem if I miscall my mom's aunt or my dad's uncle's cousin. As for my ethnicity, I am Chinese. This method is antique and outdated anyways. I'm not a fan of this patriarchal system. How, people from the mother's side are regarded as "outsiders". There's advantages to a lack of differentiation though, if I'm talking about my 外孫女 you instantly know who I'm talking about. Where as, in a language like English. I have to say "my daughter's daughter" or "my granddaughter, _name_". Since this system is deeply rooted in Chinese culture and widely used I don't expect it to change.
Now, I don't know if this is just in my experience. But often, the people whom are "outsiders" are not treated up the same standards as the father's "insiders" side of the family. I don't see that as a good thing at all. I think both sides should be weighed equally in both title and reality.
This world, has for most of history been a patriarchal one. And while genders are *not* equal in roles and biology. They should be equal under law and title. Children should either be named after both (like the Spanish) or whoever cares more about their last name. But really, at the end of the day... its just a name. I do not care about your title. I will treat everyone with the same levels of respect and I will expect nothing *less* in return.
To be honest, I really like the specificity of the system despite the fact that it's more complex. For the grandparents, though, more formal and official terms are zumu and zufu for the paternal side, and wai zumu and wai zufu for the maternal side.
In different parts of China, these terms can be quite different. Maternal grandparents for example is different in the south than north. I have never heard Female's in-laws called 奶奶 and 老爷. For me and most of China, it's 婆婆 and 公公
Well done for pointed it out! To me is a serious mistake.
***** I think it is your preference really. You can call her jie jie out of respect but you don't really have to and it wouldn't reflective badly on you if you don't. Her official relations to you is 大姨子 da yi zi. But you don't call her by that. It's used in when explaining your relationship to other people.
This tree of yours can cure deforestation
Watching this video makes me happy that most of my family lives in HK where I never see them. Ever. So I don't have to call them a bunch of complicated names. I probably shouldn't have said that but yeah.
What the eff this is so complicated I never follow this and most of my relatives live here... then again, I'm so "western-washed", meaning I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, which probably plays into that... still, so complicated, she lost me at "Mom is mama"
All i have to know is what to call everybody on my dad’s side... Which is totally not hard _at all_ ’cause my mum’s side lives in HK. I’m considered white-washed. But like, i speak mandarin and cantonese, i show proper respect and etiquette to my elders and blablabla and i follow most of the rules. I still go to chinese school. In just not a FOB.
Me too!
"Who is your grandfather's sister's son's wife?"
"Friend."
- popular Chinese joke
Miles Li 表婶 or 表舅妈
Which grandfather?? Older or younger sister?? Is the son older than me or younger than me?
actually there is a special calling， it‘s 堂婶
This is why Chinese have much lower divorce rate, becuz you didn't just marry the other half but the entire FAMILY!
I’m Chinese and I find that a lot of these term I use for different parts of the tree. For example: I use 老爷 for my maternal grandpa, I use dàyí (can’t find the words) for my moms sister.
For me (from Yunnan province), my maternal grandparents are 外公 and 外婆, my mother's sisters are 姨妈
Anyone else watch this for their Chinese Class? I have watched many Off The Great Wall videos for my Chinese Class. This is a great channel for people who want to learn Chinese.
LOL! THEY WILL THINK I AM YOUR GIRLFRIEND!
It was quite easy to understand as a Chinese haha as we go through this since young.
OMG handwriting goalzzzzzzz
When we watched this in my school's Chinese club, I was so confused I just let out a big "...AIYA!!"
Every part of Chinese New Year is amazing, except when it comes to greeting family members.
nah this is not enough ...cuz in chinese family we also have 大爷 二爷 姑婆，which is 爷爷 or 奶奶’siblings....
I watched this to help me study my Mandarin ....I ended up crying.
This is pretty much the story of my life LOL. My grandmother on my mother's side has over one hundred family members, who are all closely knotted. Every single time I go back to China I have a hard time knowing who's who. It only got into the grandparents level here. Wait until all the grand-uncles, second cousin, third cousin thing starts, then it gets complicated. LOL
how the fck do you keep track of this xD
You grow up there >_>
Just discovered this and its going to save my life when I go back for CNY. Thank you soooo much!!!
01:54 to write:
If you are a female 🚺 your brother's son in Chinese character is your "姪仔" and your brother's daughter is your "姪女".
or
If you are a 🚹 male your brother's son in Chinese character is your "侄仔" and your brother's daughter is your "侄女".
i gave up on that so long ago
now im like "yeah, hello i know you" *waits for my sisters to call them something
and they be like "why arent you adressing me?" *me and my sisters look at each other for help*
In Filipino:
If a woman is older than you, for the exception of your mother and your grandmother, you call her tita. (Tee-tah)
If she is slightly older than you, she is your ate. (Ah-teh)
If a man is older than you, for the exception of your father and your grandfather, you call him tito. (Tee-tō)
If he is slightly older than you, he is your kuya. (Koo-yah)
Not that complicated...
Grandparents- lolo and lola
Father- tatay
Mother nanay
:) just wanted to add those-family reunion tommorow, TOO MUCH TITOS AND TITAS
Margarette Feliciano Ugh, you have no idea. :)
In Bisaya, we just call our in-laws/distant relatives "parinte". It makes things easier.
I want to learn Arabic and Chinese. I took a Chinese class all the way back in the sixth grade and learned nothing aside from Ni-hao (hi).
你好
heres another one and it's very common among most asian language, Gai (chicken)
@@vandyniyomkham5032 Gai is chicken?
Not in chinese
Honestly, I think if it weren't for the complex writing system, then Chinese would be a lot faster to learn
@@alexwang982It's in Chinese but not Mandarin, it's Cantonese.
Not just "Great Wall"
But "Awesome Great Shows"
Thank you guys and gals.
I'm gonna save this video to finally recognize who the f are the married people during the wedding ceremonies of my last 20 years in which I was invited (forced).
There is more than one way of calling all your families..... apparently there are 2 mainstream ways (YES, ANOTHER COMPLEX SET OF NAMES)
e.g: I actually call my mum's mum, which is my grandma - 外婆 , and her dad - my grandpa - 外公.
people might think why the hell they have so many names, that's because Chinese tends to take the "male is the most important" idea seriously, it all evolved around this idea.
e.g: you keep your father's surname, thus your mother's parents theoretically shouldn't treat you as a family, because you don't have the same surname. Hence the name: 外孙，外婆，外公 (outside grandson, outside grandma, outside grandpa)
Many Chinese kids had this experience, and me been one of them never understand why the hell by not having their surname means you should be treated badly.
Furthermore, I don't understand why you need to put all your money and effort into your drug/gambling addicted son and choosing to abandon a high achieving daughter. How the fuck is making your drug addicted son happy gonna help you or him in any shape or form?? at the same time forcing the high achieving daughter to stop school and reduce her living cost just so that you can buy more drug for your son and let him gamble more.
Sometimes, I am really frustrated with this fucked Chinese logic.
SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCK?!!
PS: I'm a guy, and I am telling a true story of my good friend(female) family.
Make her your equal wife and give her your surname and live happily ever after xD
Or encourage her to become a feminist businesswoman then make her family believ in her too :D:D
I think it really depends where you live in. I like in the north and I call my maternal grandma and grandpa, 姥姥 and 老爷 instead of 外婆 and 外公。
i am learning chinese and they showed this in class
You guys are awsome!
Thanks :-)
Of course they are!!
OMG, these videos you guys made about Chinese heritage is soooooo.. true and authentic!
I know it because I'm Chinese (descent) too, although not from one of the English speaking countries, I can't believe all the stereotypes, parenting, family stuff are sooo similar... *amazed*
Salute!
I went into some sort of deep coma in the first 5 seconds and just started to enjoy the family tree drawings lol.
I'm Vietnamese and thank goodness it isn't as nearly complicated as this! Phew~
With a one-child policy, I can see how all these concepts of different family members will very soon die away.
That's true......
Ruslan Volkonsky But actually they'll not. The Chinese birth rate in cities like Shanghai and Beijing is below average in the world, and Chinese government is encouraging people to have more kids~of course now only in more developed areas, but in far countrysides people never stopped having more kids anyway~
Actually, the rule is starting to decrease in importance due to population decrease that happened because of the policy.
Actually the population is not really declining but they are trying to change the one child policy due to the major gender imbalance which is causing many guys to not be able to find a wife.
My mistake.
Lao wai here!
My mom's mom and dad had my mom and her two younger siblings, my aunt and uncle. My aunt has one male cousin who's younger than me.
All of my cousins on my dad's side are from my dad's older sister, all of them are older than me, female, and almost all of them are married and have sons, some are older than me while some are younger, and two of them have one daughter each , both younger than me.
Mom's Mom is what?
Mom's Dad is what?
Mom is 妈妈.
My younger sister is 妹妹.
Mom's younger sister is what?
Mom's younger sister's son is what?
Mom's younger brother is what?
Dad is 爸爸.
Dad's older sister us what?
Dad's older sister's daughter is what?
Dad's older sister's daughter's husband is what?
Dad's older sister's daughter's son older than me is what?
Dad's older sister's daughter's son younger than me is what?
Dad's older sister's daughter's daughter younger than me is what?
Mum's mum - 外婆
Mum's dad - 外公
Mum's younger sister - 阿姨
Mum's younger sister's son - 表哥 (if older) 表弟 (if younger)
Mum's younger brother - 舅舅 (same as older brother)
Dad's older sister - 姑妈
Dad's older sister's daughter - 故表姐 (if older) 故表妹 (if younger)
Dad's older sister's husband - 故障 (same as younger sister's husband)
The rest I don't know sorry.
lol that's a funny typo
Mom's Mom is 外婆 in Mandarin and 婆婆 in Cantonese.
Mom's Dad is 外公 in Mandarin and 公公 in Cantonese.
Mom is 妈妈.
My younger sister is 妹妹.
Mom's younger sister is 阿姨.
Mom's younger sister's son is 表弟
Mom's younger brother is 舅舅 just as older brother.
In short, anyone on my mom's side is considered "external" 外, and the cousins on your mom's side is given the term 表, such as 表弟 or 表姐.
Dad is 爸爸.
Dad's older sister is 姑妈.
Dad's older sister's daughter is 表妹 or 表姐 depending on whether she is younger or older than you. 妹 is younger sister, 姐 is older sister.
Dad's older sister's daughter's husband is 表妹夫 or 表姐夫. 夫 means the husband of.
Dad's older sister's daughter's son older than me is 表儿甥 with 甥 meaning nephew.
Dad's older sister's daughter's son younger than me is ....Well, I don't think your nephew is younger than you, so yeah....
Dad's older sister's daughter's daughter younger than me is...again, I don't think your cousin's daughter or your niece would be younger than you.
I love their channel .. wish they can come back.
Much respect to whomever gets both their names AND family tree positions right. Imagine having a little cousin and trying to explain to him/her where the hell she is in the family tree...
Thank you soooooo much for upload this video!!!
LOVE it.
我爱中国文化♡♡♡♡♡
Thank Carole for sent to me this link.
Happy Thanksgiving to ALL!!!
it takes 4 minutes to say every family member in Chinese but on speed run.. DAMN! well, better get started, so my brother's wife's sister's second child that is a girl is ...
Kovaxim The Random We don't have a name for such a far relative so you can just call her by her first name since she is from a younger generation than you (:
Actually，people from southern China and northern China call these relatives in different way. For example，in the south we call mother's mother 外婆，but in the north， they call 姥姥. Besidess，in this video，there are some mistakes，there is no 伯娘，we call her 伯母.
婆婆 and 公公 is how your call your husband's mother and father，not how you call your mother'mother and mother's father.
I grew up calling my mother's parents 婆婆 and 公公 though.
那你们怎么称呼丈夫的父母呢？
I'm guessing some grandparents don't like the 外.
You handwriting is way too neat! :) The drawing was amazing too! Great job!
OMFG!! OTGW!!
This gave me a headache...
I love the animated illustrations!
That's just brilliant!!
For more Hispanic family you have you aunts and uncles aka your tios and tias and the cousins that are significantly older than you are also refered to as tio or tia and then you got your grandparents which they are called nana/abuela and tata/abuelo and your godparents aka your ninos and ninas.
In other words Spanish is a great language for people who don't want to remember all of that?
echoeddra8on pretty much.
echoeddra8on
We count our parent's cousins as (Tios/Tias) uncles & aunts, I call my older cousins cousins, but once they reach their 30s I can begin to call them Uncles/Aunts.
My older cousins are primos,One of those cousin's nickname is Tata,so that's what I call him Primo Tata. My grandpa because he's Italian we call him Nono and our Latino grandma is called Nona just because she is married to him. But we also call them Abuelos not Nana & Tata. An my godparents are my Comadre & Compadre.
that is complete insanity.
I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, family relationships play an important role in chinese culture.
......... what happpens if their gay?
Kyanni Hippsley Yah right. That is the most important question here
The parents probably wouldn’t allow that and force the child to settle down with someone the opposite gender of them.
@@theeas5390 true.
Now that Taiwan has legalized gay marriage, we might soon see a solution
It's pretty cool that in Chinese you can say there "name thang" and people know exactly what you are talking about, and this shows how mutch the culture values family.
This was very helpful yet very intimidating
I don't call my relatives any of these names 😂😂😂
Interesting...very interesting.
Holy shit... I think I will just stick with calling them "family"
Now this is what you call "MIND BLOWN"
You guys are great! I found this while searching for fun ways to teach my 1/4 Chinese daughter how to speak Mandarin in a fun way. Makes me proud to be 1/2 Chinese. Looks like I need to watch that clip next!!! Subscribed and keeping in touch. Thank you for what I've seen so far! ;)
Thanks for the kind words and thanks for subscribing :-)
believe it or not this is still simpler than my family tree at least they all have titles so your not like Lisa is that uncle so and so daughter no that grandmas sisters husband child
my brain broke...
Damn.
I thought being from an Italian family was confusing. lol
+Kelsie LeCrone Just out of curiosity, do you use a different name to call and refer to your aunts and uncles from different sides of the family? Like, do you call your dad's brother something different from what you call your mum's brother?
elaine yap I just call them all by their first names.
It's the least confusing.
As for grandparents though, I call them all different things.
+Kelsie LeCrone Oh, thanks. In my family, my nieces and nephews can call me Auntie Elaine( in Mandarin) but they use the system like in the video to call their mum's and dad's siblings. I have to greet my aunts and uncles using a variation of those terms in dialect.
elaine yap There's probably over 500 people in my family though, so it's a lot of names to remember. lol
@@elaineyap8229looked up italian family terms and they don’t seem to have different terms for aunts, uncles and whatnot unlike chinese.
Some of them are wrong, and some of them are used in Southern China. But it showed the extensive vocab for family members.
I’m never complaining about the English designations for my relatives ever again.
Before we go visit family I always ask my mom how to call them and them try to memorize it as fast as possible Xd sigh... Why can;t we just have aunt, uncle, cousins etc. like evryone else? T-T
Same here. Only at the age of 18 I understood who is who in the family. And earlier just call as they were elder than my mother.
Линь Чан Just out of curiosity, are you Chinese :D ?
PS: same thing happened to me as well
Asterio well on paper I'm Dutch but my parents are from asia
Asterio no XD do i look like one?
and what about you? :D
Линь Чан LOL of course you don't look like one, that's why I ask... because I thought you said somewhere that you had similar difficulties with calling your relatives... So I was super curious !! Russian looking Chinese is surely rare. :P
PS: I'm Chinese, but grown up in Australia.
婆婆，公公are rather not common names for grandparents from mother's side. those names are rather for parents from the husband's side!!!! this is a small mistake..In China, 外公，外婆 are much more popular. or 姥姥，姥爷！！please pay attention to it!
this is easier than the cantonese one
cause canto is harder
My Chinese teacher showed this to my class, we lost track after the first 10 seconds when she was drawing the family tree
OH. MY. GOD 🤯
Now I know why there are so many different names being called when I watch Chinese dramas.... I really love how everyone has a different name! Wow that's pretty cool! You wouldn't have to explain which someone in your family is to someone outside of it cause they each have their own special name ❤
lol im chinese and i don't even know half of this!
I think my brain imploded...
well, so thanks for the one-child policy
My family is either really lax about this, decided it wasn't worth being so complicated, or they have no idea. At this point it's a toss up. I'm years late, but thanks for the video!
the dedication put into this video