this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
38 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

35828 readers
2335 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Just curious. Because I think it's very "rude" in the Chinese Culture where I grew up in, to use the real names of people older than you. You have to address them by relationship like "father/dad" or "older brother" or "oldest aunt" "2nd aunt" "3rd aunt" (ordered by who was born first). Like I don't think you are supposed to say Aunt [Name] or Uncle [Name]. Names are never used, only the relationship.

I'm under the impression that some Westerners, particularly Americans, apparantly are on first-name basis with parents... like either because they are very close, or very distant... is that really a thing irl, or is that just the media? I think I saw TV/Movie scenes where the kids (or maybe adult children) called their parent by their first names.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 21 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I've always done that with both my parents, but then again I'm Danish. It's a radically different culture. Families are not seen as particularly inherently important here. It's usually not even a meritocratic assessment of the family as a unit - it's an individual one. You might like some people, you might dislike others. Either way, is has almost nothing to do with whether a blood relation exists or not.

"An asshole's an asshole."

Edit: Along similar philosophical lines, there's no particular veneration of age. Age and wisdom might be proportionally related, but one does not guarantee the other. Some people manage only to grow more foolish with age. Precocious children exist.

I'd be very interested in exploring the differences between cultures more with you, assuming you're willing.