Cultural differences between Canada and China – “Please” and “Thank You”
“Please” and “Thank You” are some of the most common courtesies in English. However, generally speaking, You may find Chinese immigrants or individuals whose first language is Chinese not use such courtesies as often as those who’ve been brought up in the West. This difference can be partly attributed to the difference between English and Chinese language structures.
In Chinese, use “qǐng” (please) before or after a verb to make a request sound more formal. The other, more common way to make a polite request is to put a particle “ba” at the end of the sentence to give it a suggestive tone. This is more colloquial and casual. For example, to say “Please come in. Please eat.” In Chinese, you would say, “Lái ba (Lai, means to come), Chī ba (chi means to eat).“ The particle “ba” has no lexical meaning, but it indicates a suggestion or request. It softens the tone and has the same function as “qǐng” , but most translators would not translate it into “please”.
“Thank you” is rather sparingly used in Chinese society compared to its Western counterpart. Chinese people say “thank you” when they receive a favour or help. Between friends and families, “thank you” is not as common used as in English. People tend to think that helping or doing a small favour for close friends and family members is natural and therefore should be taken for granted. Saying “thank you ”could be considered to be too formal and breaks the intimacy of the relationship.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson on the differences in culture between Western society and Chinese. Next week, we will go into the cultural differences between the popular words: “Yes” and “No”.
To learn more about Chinese language and the cultural differences in communications between Canada and China, enroll in our Vancouver Mandarin Classes. Visit www.KeyLanguageTraining.com for more information.
