Have you eaten yet?

 
As I attempt to learn more chinese words here I am becoming increasingly aware of how important it is to know the culture of the place you are living.  A simple phrase translated from English to Chinese can have an implied meaning that is totally different.  And this makes for some awkward meetings and confusing conversations. 

At any time of the day, weather it be 6:00 am or midnight, people are always asking us "have you eaten yet?"  Now in English, this sounds like an invitation.  In the US if I go to my friends house, 99% of the time when somebody asks me if I have eaten yet and I say "no"  it is followed by either an invitation to a restaurant or maybe an offer to share in your friend's food.  So it took us long enough to figure this out...but in China it's just a greeting.  "Nǐ chī le ma?" Is just a yes or no question, no invitation.  So the first several weeks here people kept asking us, and we say  "Oh yea we did, but maybe tomorrow?"  And they look at us very confused.... or we would say "no we haven't, but we are going to this restaurant if you want to join us." and they say "no no I am very busy and I ate already"  and we think "okkk then why did you ask?"   Anyway, all they are really saying is "Hi".   Tim and I explained to our classes that asking this question in English can be confusing unless they mean it as an invitation.  They thought it was so strange that it would mean anything other than a greeting.   Similarly, we learned that when the English language first came to China, hello was a really strange word to them and doesn't really make sense because it doesn't really have a meaning.  Hello is purely a greeting in English.  If people know one word in Chinese, it's usually "nǐhǎo".  And while it is a greeting that functions as "hello"  what you are actually saying is "you good".

Or something like that.

Another situation is in English we sometimes use "How are you?" as a greeting, asking this as we walk by, not really trying to strike up a conversation.  This is confusing for the Chinese for two reasons, first of all when you ask "How are you?"  They are expecting to have a real conversation, not a drive by question they can barely answer in time before you walk away.  Secondly, it's kind of a rude question to ask because translated literally "how are you?"  ( ni hao ma?) in Chinese has a different cultural meaning.  The cultural translation means something more like "are you ok?"   Phrase books will teach you "ni hao ma" as an appropriate way to ask how somebody is doing but to them it sounds like "what is wrong with you?"  People will use it if you are choking or look ill. 

Thrilling, I know.  The point is, Chinese is by far the most difficult language I have come across for these reasons, an exact translation means something totally different to them than what you think it means.  So you can translate, sure.  But translating "good morning" into Chinese is still not something that Chinese people ever actually say to each other.    It's hard!!
Anyway, it's was interesting for me cuz it finally cleared up a lot of confusion...but blah blah blah.  Is this at all interesting to you? 

You don't have to answer that, I know it's dreadfully boring.  I'm done here, go do something more interesting.