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Posts: 22

Governor

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Q: Does "please don't be angry" really mean "I'm sorry"in Chinese?

This is a serious question for all those who know and speak a decent level of Chinese.

 

My girl did something wrong yesterday, benign, but wrong nonetheless. Anyways, I was waiting for the apology, and when it didn't come, confronted her about it. She said she'd apologized. I asked when, and she answered, "I asked you to please not be angry." She was very serious, so I'm wondering if apologizing here is so difficult they have 2nd and 3rd subtlety levels for it.

 

I believe her exact words in Chinese were: 请别生气 (qing bie shengqi)

11 years 41 weeks ago in  Culture - China

 
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Posts: 2253

Emperor

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Hm...maybe it's not quite apologizing, maybe it's more like asking to forgive her? If it's not important, it's not really a problem, right?

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11 years 41 weeks ago
 
Posts: 497

Shifu

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Who told You that all women speaks "straight"?! Wink
 

It's not the culture, but more about gender differences. And Yes, those are lovely differences, and world without it would be boring...

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11 years 41 weeks ago
 
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Emperor

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  No, it doesn't mean sorry but if she said she apologized, then that's at least admitting fault. She's probably just too proud to give you any more than that.

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11 years 41 weeks ago
 
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Governor

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Every person has their own personality and, thus, ways to say sorry. It has nothing to do with culture. My BF is Chinese and he has no problems in saying "I'm sorry" when necessary. We talked it through the first time we've had a little discussion and that's it, problem solved.

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11 years 41 weeks ago
 
Posts: 104

Governor

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Mmmmmh no it's in the Chinese culture to avoid coming out with a clear 'sorry', especially on the part of girls. My girlfriend confirmed this to me when I confronted her with the same issue i.e. failure to say 'sorry'. Told me, generally in China a girl is not expected to utter a 'sorry' to the person she is in a relationship with. But get this - the fact that it's part of the culture doesn't mean everybody goes with that. Some Chinese girls/women say sorry, a direct sorry to their partners. Would help if you and your girl talked about it - sometimes it's better to avoid operating on assumptions on certain issues...assumptions can be wrong. If she cant say sorry u will always have to assume she has apologised...and that's not healthy because your assumption will be accompanied by some doubts about the apology. Doubts will give u an unhappy relationship. Talk about it with ur girl.

mikael84:

I can confirm this.

 

My wife is terrible at admitting fault about serious things. It has become better over time, but not acceptable yet.

11 years 41 weeks ago
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11 years 41 weeks ago
 
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A: Chinese are generally pretty tolerant friendly and accepting whatever
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