Scan the room before you start greeting people, and go to whoever looks oldest first, even if they’re seated furthest from the door or aren’t the one who invited you. A right-hand handshake is fine for the actual greeting; the ordering is what carries the weight.
If you’re learning any Vietnamese at all, learn the kinship terms before you learn much else — anh/chị for someone a bit older, ông/bà for someone elderly, em for someone younger than you. Getting the term roughly right matters more than getting the grammar around it right.
- This is the same instinct behind the business-card handshake order — greeting elders first at a meeting isn’t a separate rule from the social one, it’s the same hierarchy applied in a business setting.