{"id":26129,"date":"2026-04-07T09:33:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/walking-vietnam.net\/?post_type=rensai&p=26129"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T02:33:46","slug":"grandmothers-inside-and-outside","status":"publish","type":"rensai","link":"https:\/\/walking-vietnam.net\/en\/rensai\/sessa-vietnam-zatsugaku\/grandmothers-inside-and-outside\/","title":{"rendered":"The old woman inside and the old woman outside"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Recently, I had lunch at a restaurant called \"Com Ba Ngoai (Food from an Older Woman)\" where they serve typical Vietnamese home-cooked dishes. They specialize in what is known as rural grandma-style cooking. The trademark of the restaurant, with the elderly woman holding her young grandson in a smiling manner, is a sight to behold. This time, I will write about the story of the inside and outside grandmothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside and outside in Vietnam<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

In Vietnam, one of the words used to express kinship relationships is \"in\" and \"out.\" From our perspective, relatives on the father's side are expressed using \"in\" (N\u1ed9i) and relatives on the mother's side are \"out\" (Ngo\u1ea1i). As you can imagine from this expression, there is a tradition in Vietnam where relatives on the father's side are prioritized as the hierarchy. For example, on the first day of Tet (T\u1ebft), relatives on the father's side only interact with those on the inside, and from the 2nd day onwards, the outside relatives are considered the representative example. As in ancient Japan, there was the idea that women would only enter the house of the husband's family after getting married, and children born there were considered to have an internal existence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An outside grandmother for a grandchild<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Due to these circumstances, grandchildren who grew up in traditional environments have many opportunities to interact with their inner relatives on a daily basis, and only special occasions are when they meet their outer relatives. Therefore, although they have a slightly distanced relationship with their outer relatives, for the outside grandmother they are no different from their own grandchildren. Therefore, they are very fond of their grandchildren, who they only see very rarely. The shop\u2019s trademark at the beginning represents exactly the image of the outside grandmother they saw during their childhood.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the grandma inside?<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

I thought the name came from a shop that was just \"the shop run by the old lady on the inside.\" However, according to the Vietnamese person, if the name were \"The Old Lady on the Inside (Com Ba Noi)\", it wouldn't work. Traditionally, the old lady on the inside often lives with her grandchildren, and it's common for them to take on the daily chores as well. It's impossible to be loved unconditionally just because you spend every day together, so there will be times when you get angry or get loud. It's not uncommon for grandchildren to make negative comments about the old lady. In other words, in the case of the old lady on the inside, it seems that they don't really have the smile and attitude of a trademark for the shop. If you can put it in simple terms, I also have a few instances where that's exactly what I'm thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is well known that Vietnamese people have a wide and deep connection with their relatives. This aspect is also reflected in the terms used in Vietnamese. In addition to the terms used to distinguish between relatives from one's father's and mother's side, there are many terms that simply describe the relationship between oneself and one's relatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

author (usu. of a particular book, etc.)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Takuma Inada<\/h3>

Social Security Actuary of Japan<\/p>

Representative of SESSA VIETNAM CO.<\/p>

Profile<\/h4>

Having been involved in human resources and personnel affairs in Vietnam for more than 10 years, he currently runs SESSA VIETNAM, which he started on his own. The company provides personnel consulting services mainly in the fields of human resource recruitment, personnel affairs consultation, and labor permit application handling. He spends his days observing Vietnamese people on a daily basis, and it has become his daily routine to think about the \u201cwhy and what\u201d of Vietnam. While raising his Vietnamese wife and two children, he is constantly striving to provide bilingual education in Vietnamese and English.
Official HP\u3011 \u3010Official HPhttps:\/\/www.sessa-jp.com<\/a><\/p><\/div>

\"Profile<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u5148\u65e5\u3001\u300c\uff23\uff4f\uff4d \uff22\uff41 \uff2e\uff47\uff4f\uff41\uff49\uff08\u5916\u306e\u304a\u5a46\u3055\u3093\u306e\u3054\u98ef\uff09\u300d\u3068\u3044\u3046\u5e97\u3067\u98df\u4e8b\u3092\u3057\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u305d\u3053\u306f\u30d9\u30c8\u30ca\u30e0\u306e\u4e00\u822c\u7684\u306a\u5bb6\u5ead\u6599\u7406\u3092\u63d0\u4f9b\u3057\u3066\u3044\u308b\u5e97\u3067\u3001\u3044\u308f\u3086\u308b\u7530\u820e\u306e\u304a\u3075\u304f\u308d\u306e\u5473\u7684\u306a\u6599\u7406\u3092\u58f2\u308a\u306b\u3057\u3066\u3044\u307e\u3059\u3002\u5e7c\u3044\u5b6b\u3092\u304a\u5a46\u3055\u3093\u304c\u7b11\u9854\u3067\u304a\u3093\u3076\u3057 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26130,"parent":8404,"menu_order":408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":""},"rensai_type":[277],"class_list":["post-26129","rensai","type-rensai","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rensai_type-sessa-vietnam-page"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t