Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories
skisnow@lemmy.ca 3 days agoThe Chinese for “how do you do” translates as “have you eaten yet?”
Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories
skisnow@lemmy.ca 3 days agoThe Chinese for “how do you do” translates as “have you eaten yet?”
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
And what’s the correct formulaic response to that?
skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
I’m not actually sure. I’ve always answered it at face value, but I’m not a native speaker. I’ve probably been committing a faux pas, like disagreeing with a British person when they say “lovely weather today”.
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
English has a rote greeting in “How are you doing?” But, you can respond with anything from “great!” to “oh, okay”. It would be a big faux pas to take that as an opportunity to launch into all your medical issues. Maybe in Chinese it’s ok to respond honestly, but just not to assume someone is actually asking you if you want to eat something.