What behaviors of Chinese people may misunderstand foreigners, and how to solve them?

Have you ever had a joke or misunderstanding with a foreigner? The cultural differences between China and the West will cause the two parties to have different attitudes and approaches to certain things. Long live better communication and understanding. In order to make it easier for you to get along with foreigners, we have summarized 10 common misunderstandings and their solutions.

10 Praise

Westerners are happy to praise others and are also happy to accept praise from others. In order to show humility, Chinese people often "reject" compliments from others. This kind of "rejection" will make the foreigner feel confused, as if you don't appreciate his favor.

Chinese people are always willing to say caring words out of politeness or to get close to others. In order to show hospitality, we often like to say to guests, "You must be tired? Have a good rest." However, ordinary greetings may be misunderstood by Westerners as expressing concern about her physical condition. They love being complimented on how young and strong they are, and may even get angry if you question their physical health.

9 Acknowledgments

Chinese people believe that helping family members or good friends is one's own obligation, no need to thank or be thanked, and there is no need to say thank you to each other. Relationships are born. Foreigners are accustomed to saying thank you to family or friends for their help. They expect polite expressions like "please", "thank you", etc. Therefore, when getting along with foreigners, never be stingy with the word "thank you". Missing "thank you" will only make foreigners think you are shy and impolite.

8 Travel

When Chinese people travel together, if they buy something, the person who spends the money will usually count how many people are there first, and then buy things based on the number of people, even if there are people before Even if he politely said no, the Chinese would still buy him a copy.

However, when traveling with foreigners, if you politely say that you don’t need something, then the foreigner will really not buy it for you. They think they respect your decision not to buy it for you. Respect one's own decision, "yes" means one wants it, "no" means one doesn't, politeness is usually shown by the expressions 'thank you' or "please". So, if you want something, just say it directly. Saying sincere thank you afterwards is polite in their eyes.

7 Titles

When foreigners hear Chinese people call them "foreigners", they are unhappy because they feel that they are not old and are very healthy. They dislike being labeled as “old”, being young valued above being old. And when they heard that Chinese people also call foreign children "laowai", they realized that "Lao" is actually an honorific for a certain person, such as Lao Zhang and Lao Wang.

6 Farewell

Chinese people express emotions in a relatively restrained way. When bidding farewell, they held back tears and refrained from hugging. Their various "coldness" behaviors deeply surprised foreigners. Therefore, if you are saying goodbye to a foreigner, you may want to act more relaxed and unrestrained, but don't let them think you are a "cold-blooded animal".

5 Applause

When speaking in public, if others applaud them, in order to express their gratitude, Chinese people usually pause their speech and then applaud along with the audience. In this way he expresses his thanks to the audience. But foreigners don’t understand why they should applaud themselves. It's so immodest to applaud yourself. Therefore, in the future, when foreigners are present, those who speak may wish to bow or wave instead of applauding. Of course, standing with a smile is also an option.

4 Eyes

Many Chinese people are shy about making eye contact with the audience when talking to others or speaking in public.

Some of them, perhaps because of nervousness, like to bury their nose in their manuscript to read their speech all the time. This approach is actually rude.

When communicating with others, foreigners expects eye contact, though this does not have to be constant.

When speaking in public, foreigners look at his audience now and then. They are I won’t bury my head in the manuscript and talk.

3 Giving gifts

Chinese people like to give gifts in pairs, such as two bottles of wine and two cigarettes. One is to show that he is not a stingy person, and the other is to get a lucky number. It is very common to bring some fruit when visiting a friend or relative's house. However, in the West, when people give wine as gifts, they only give one bottle.

One is quite enough, two are of course welcome but unusual and not expected. Because they have to drink the wine brought by the guest when eating. If the guest takes two bottles, it seems to indicate that the guest is an alcoholic, and the host I'm afraid one bottle of wine isn't enough.

Usually you don’t give fruits as a guest when you visit a friend’s house. Fruit is usually given as a gift when visiting patients. After reading this article, I hope you can avoid the minefield of misunderstandings, communicate without limits, and make friends without borders. Moreover, when Chinese people receive gifts from others, in order to show that they are not greedy for money, they are accustomed to quietly putting the gifts aside and then waiting for the guests to leave before unpacking them; while foreigners want you to open the gifts in front of them and praised his gift.

2 Being a Guest

When Chinese people visit other people’s homes, they like to wander around and look everywhere. But what do foreigners think of these behaviors? "I'm often taken aback by the way visitors come round to my flat and seem to feel free to take the place over, putting on the telly, pulling down books from my shelves, even peering at letters I've left lying around on the desk." Although it is good hospitality to make guests feel at home, foreigners are still taboo with you wandering around his home or even peeking into his privacy when you are a guest. Similarly, when it comes to privacy issues such as salary and age, we should not ask them openly.

1 Eating

“People are like iron, and rice is like steel. If you don’t eat one meal, you will feel hungry.” Many of our interactions with foreigners happen at the dinner table. When Chinese invite foreigners to their homes for dinner, they may prepare 8-10 dishes. You'd better prepare foreigners mentally, or they may not have the stomach to eat the next dish.

They may think Chinese people are hospitable, if anything too hospitable.

If you go to a foreigner’s house for dinner, there may be only one dish on the table! And they also like to say "The dishes are quite good; these dishes are quite famous", which is definitely not like the Chinese who like to say: "If you don't prepare well, just eat it."

Also, the Chinese In order to show enthusiasm, I like to pick up food for others. But foreigners don’t like to ask others to pick up food for them. Foreigners are happy to let people choose their favorite food. In addition, when dining with foreigners, Chinese people must not be modest and reserved.

Most foreigners are real people. When they ask you if you want something to eat, if you decline, they will respect your decision and not give you anything to eat. In a word, foreigners are more direct in their expression and way of life, while Chinese are more reserved.