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The word ugly in Vietnamese is ³æấu.  That â (with accent circumflex) is a vowel by itself.  There are 12 vowels in Vietnamese language; â (accent circumflex) is the 3rd one, preceded by a and ă (with breve).

³Ýấu is pronounced very differently from ³æà´Ç (fry), ³æảo (short for ³æảo quyệt, which means treacherous), and ³æạo (lie).

³Ýấu never precedes noi (however the spelling).  The two words together in that order do not make sense.  If you switch their positions, however, then ²Ôó¾± ³æấu means badmouthing.

Now that we've eliminated the word ugly, let's talk about what you thought you heard.

There isn't much difference in the pronunciations of s and x, therefore, what you thought was xao could easily be sao, and sao does go with ²Ôó¾± and ²Ôổi.  You might have heard only part of an ongoing conversation, in which sao ²Ôổi is "cannot" -- (Làm/²Ôó¾± sao ²Ôổi?  What can [I/you/he, etc.] do/say?)

I have a feeling you heard an innocent remark that had nothing to do with you whatsoever, but for some reasons, you took it personally and decided that those young women were rude (to you.)  How strange.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.-Alexander Pope

The above exchange shows the pitfalls of the Vietnamese language for foreigners.  The smallest difference in tone can change meaning. 

To BT:   Be more confident man.  Every time I hear young ladies talking within earshot, I just assume they are remarking on how handsome I am.   

THIGV wrote:

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.-Alexander Pope

The above exchange shows the pitfalls of the Vietnamese language for foreigners.  The smallest difference in tone can change meaning. 

To BT:   Be more confident man.  Every time I hear young ladies talking within earshot, I just assume they are remarking on how handsome I am.   

They are commenting on your character.




You obviously have a wallet full of character.

eodmatt wrote:

You obviously have a wallet full of character.

Maybe that's why my wife always gave me only 500,000 at a time and made me come back for more as needed.      She was saving me from assaults on my character.

Ciambella wrote:

The word ugly in Vietnamese is ³æấu.  That â (with accent circumflex) is a vowel by itself.  There are 12 vowels in Vietnamese language; â (accent circumflex) is the 3rd one, preceded by a and ă (with breve).

³Ýấu is pronounced very differently from ³æà´Ç (fry), ³æảo (short for ³æảo quyệt, which means treacherous), and ³æạo (lie).

³Ýấu never precedes noi (however the spelling).  The two words together in that order do not make sense.  If you switch their positions, however, then ²Ôó¾± ³æấu means badmouthing.

Now that we've eliminated the word ugly, let's talk about what you thought you heard.

There isn't much difference in the pronunciations of s and x, therefore, what you thought was xao could easily be sao, and sao does go with ²Ôó¾± and ²Ôổi.  You might have heard only part of an ongoing conversation, in which sao ²Ôổi is "cannot" -- (Làm/²Ôó¾± sao ²Ôổi?  What can [I/you/he, etc.] do/say?)

I have a feeling you heard an innocent remark that had nothing to do with you whatsoever, but for some reasons, you took it personally and decided that those young women were rude (to you.)  How strange.

It's a bit hard to really say that he is right or wrong, we weren't there.

I have  a friend who speaks very good Vietnamese and he said that many of the younger generation do say snide remarks towards foreigners.We were at a cafe and the waitress said in Vietnamese "look at that woman's big arse," referring to a western lady. My friend pulled her up on this and she was very embarrassed.

So, it does happen.

You're right, we're not there to know what's what.  However, the conclusion I drew was based on the two words the OP said he heard.  Even assuming the pronunciation was correct, ugly could not be part of those words because the two words together simply did not have any meaning, unless those young women used code words among themselves.

Agree, but how do we know those words are what they actually said.

Even my wife has trouble with the way teenagers and the younger generation speak.

At the end of the day it's a minor issue and is best to just ignore what kids say.

Agreed, teenagers say rude things to be funny or cool, all over the world and not just in Vietnam.

True, but this forum is about Vietnam.

I have to agree with Ciambella.  The girl most likely said "sao ²Ôổi", which you said you heard something like "Xao Noi" which translates to "No way!"  or "It can't possibly be!"  or "You've got to be kidding!"  Maybe one of the girl said something preposterous and the other girl just replied to her, and not you.

On the other hand, girls especially teenage girls have all kinds of code words or local dialects that you and I would never understand.  I can't even understand my American teen girls half the time much less Vietnamese ones.