Lesson 5: Family Members & Addressing People (A & C)

This is intended for both adults and children. There are many ways to address a family member in English (Dad, Father, etc) and Bahasa Indonesia (Papa, Ayah) , so does Chinese.

Knowing what to address someone properly is important. From here, you will know how the relation between one person to another. This is the unique thing about Chinese, which also makes it a bit complicated. However, personally I would like to keep this tradition in my own family.

Here I will only show you the most common one :)
Father                             爸爸            bà ba
Mother                            妈妈            mā ma
Older Sister                    姐姐            jiě jie 
Younger Sister               妹妹            mèi mei 
Older Brother                 哥哥            gē ge
Younger Brother            弟弟            dì di 
Paternal Grandpa           爷爷             yé ye 
Paternal Granma            奶奶             nǎi nai
Maternal Grandpa          公公             gong gong 
Maternal Grandma         婆婆             pó po 
Uncle (from Dad's side, older than your dad)                 伯伯             bó bo 
Uncle (from Dad's side, younger than your dad)            叔叔            Shū shu
Uncle (from Mom's side)                                                舅舅             jiù jiu
Aunt (from Dad's side）                                                 姑姑             gū gu
Aunt (from Mom's side, older than your mom)              姨妈              yí mā
Aunt (from Mom's side, younger thatn your mom)        阿姨              ā yí
Niece                                侄女                    zhí nǔ 
Nephew                            侄儿 / 外甥        zhí ér / wài shēng

There are still more actually, like your uncle's wife is not just "aunt", but there is a proper way to address her, depending on whose wife she is. However, enough for now. It will be to overwhelming if I were to introduce all at once.

The purpose of knowing the above is that so that you can teach your children a proper way of addressing people. Together with this, introduce to her the greeting that you have already learnt before. So the next time they see their grandpa, they can say: “公公，早上好”  

gōng gong, zǎo shàng hǎo or “爷爷， 早上好” yé ye, zǎo shàng hǎo (Good Morning, Grandpa)。

Or teach them how to say thank you. When your husband's older brother buys a present for your childen, teach them to say “伯伯，谢谢” bó bo, xiè xie (Thanks, Uncle)

Another tips to address friends. If it is a female friend, we like to address them as “阿姨”   ā yí,  we assume she is a sister to us (wife). However, if it a male friend, we teach our kids to address him as “叔叔” shū shu , we assume he is a brother to our husband, if your male friend is older we use “伯伯”, bó bo.

Teaching kids how to address people properly is still something conventional yet part of teaching them good manner, at least for the Eastern. In our family, it is something that is important. When our parents are talking to their friend, even if we do not know them, we will have to address that uncle/aunt. We do not just stand there quietly or walk away without greeting them. Raised in that kind of family, I expect a lot from the kids nowadays too.

What if we meet someone about our age or not in a "Personal" context, working environment, for example. It might not be too appropriate to call your boss (who you assume from their appearance is older than you) as 伯伯. For this purpose, we have the following:

Mr.     先生     xiān sheng     

                   e.g. Mr. Lee       李先生        lí xiān sheng

Mrs./ Madam  (Married woman)        女士       nǚ shì     

                  e.g. Madam Kwan     关女士         guān nǚ shì 

(Note: If we know exactly that woman is married to Mr. Li and she takes after his surname, we can then use 夫人 (fū ren).

Addressing them as: 李先生 & 李夫人       lí xiān sheng & lí fū ren        Mr & Mrs. Li)

Ms.     小姐      xiǎo jiě 

                   e.g. Ms. Chen          陈小姐     chén xiǎo jiě

Try to apply this as much as possible and you will get use to it before you know it. :)

Your kids can call me,

Linda 阿姨   (Aunt Linda)

Tips!

I normally do not memorize the meaning, I will use it in one situation where I know for sure it is correct and always refer back to the use of each word in that situation to get the meaning.

For example: I have many uncles whom I address as 舅舅 jiù jiu. Therefore, when I need the meaning of the word "舅舅", I will always refer back to that person. And start thinking, "who does the person relate to?" Then, I know that he is my mother's brother. Thus I got my answer 舅舅  jiù jiu refers to uncle from mother's side, can be older or younger.