tự khiêm
Definition
- Verb:
- To humble oneself: The act of consciously lowering one's own status, importance, or achievements out of modesty or to show respect to others. It is a deliberate and often culturally valued practice of self-effacement.
Usage Examples
- Verb:
- Trong bài phát biểu, ông ấy luôn tự khiêm, không hề khoe khoang thành tích. (In his speech, he always humbled himself, never boasting about his achievements.)
- Người có học thức thực sự thường biết cách tự khiêm. (Truly knowledgeable people often know how to humble themselves.)
- Cô ấy tự khiêm trước mặt các bậc tiền bối. (She humbled herself in front of her elders.)
Advanced Usage
- This term is deeply rooted in Confucian and Vietnamese cultural values, where modesty and humility are considered virtues. It is more than simple modesty; it implies an active, conscious effort to present oneself as less than one is, often in social or hierarchical contexts.
Variants and Related Words
- Khiêm tốn (adj): modest, humble. This is a more common and general adjective for the quality of humility.
- Anh ấy là một người rất khiêm tốn. (He is a very modest person.)
- Tự hạ (v): to lower/debase oneself. This can have a stronger, sometimes more negative connotation than .
- Nhún nhường (v): to be deferential, to yield modestly.
Synonyms
- To humble oneself: The most direct synonym.
- To be self-effacing: To avoid drawing attention to oneself.
- To show humility: To demonstrate a modest view of one's own importance.
Related Idioms
- Khiêm nhường là đức tính của bậc trí giả: Modesty is the virtue of the wise. This proverb encapsulates the cultural ideal behind the act of .