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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Is there a word in Chinese for excuse me?
Ive asked lots of Chinese people and they all just seem to intentional bump into one another when they need to get through a gap. that or they grunt at each other.
I dont want to always have to push people to make them notice me and there is only so much grunting in a day I want to do. What do you guys normally do to get someones attention verbally? I dont mind rude, just so long as I dont have to TOUCH anyone.
dui bi qi
Shining_brow:
NO!! That more correctly translates to "I'm sorry"... which, in this case, the OP certainly is NOT! This is more of a 'get out of my way' sort of thing... there are much better phrases out there to use.
lao2jia4
But they'll think you're weird if you say it. It is generally seen as way too polite for that kind of situation. I say just do as the Chinese do, when in Rome and all that.
I just say excuse me with a slight tap if they are not facing me. Many understand by the body language what you mean, a lot now understand those words in English and some just ignore you anyway.
Start singing in English. It gets their attention and catches them off-guard, normally causing some to even sidestep away from you. Then you have an easy path to just slip in.
You can say GUO YI XIA loudly so everyone near you can hear you.
让一下 as wenna7 said: Rang4 yi2 xia4 - literally means "allow a bit"
But I couldn't hope to pronounce it well enough for them to understand anyway.
qingwen , proper word for saying excuse me
tomcatflyer:
This is ok for "I want to ask you a question", not so good for "please get out of the way"
No people mentioned "借过(jie4 guo4)"? It's a good word for such cases! It means "borrow me a way to pass". You probably have to say it loudly though.
Not sure why 2 year old posts like this get bumped up. Looks like this lady is long gone and been out of China for well over a year now..... guess that whole not wanting to touch people didn't work out to well