In Vietnamese, we don’t have “you” or “me.” In Switzerland everyone goes by their names so we hardly use aunt, uncle, etc.
But in Vietnam, everyone has a family title like uncle, aunt, big sister, little sister. So when you talk it’s like this: big sister, little sister would like you to pass the salt please. People’s attitudes change if you have a higher status. People try to add years to their age to get higher status.
I’m 7th out of 8 siblings so have always been used to being called “em” (little sibling). Since we’ve been here, all our contacts (university, apartment, kindergarten, tour guides etc) have all been younger than us! It has been a little hard to get used to being called big sister or aunt. The tour guides were my nephews’ age. It makes me seem older than I feel. At least when we go back to the states I’ll be able to shed a few years and be my “normal” young self again:)