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So does that mean Mandarin can be considered as more "straight to the point" and as not featuring a system of "gradual politeness" compared to other languages?

So does that mean Mandarin can be considered as more "straight to the point" and as not featuring a system of "gradual politeness" compared to other languages? Does that also mean that Mandarin speakers will express themselves more or less the same regardless of the social status of the person they're talking to? It's funny because I've had the opportunity to speak with a few Mandarin speakers, and sometimes when they were asking things in English, I felt something quite different. I wouldn't say that they were not polite, because that was not the case in their attitude, but the way they formulated their request was rather direct and as if the result of the request was a given.

komali2 2y ago
> So does that mean Mandarin can be considered as more "straight to the point" and as not featuring a system of "gradual politeness" compared to other languages? It definitely feels more "straight to the point" to me than English, but I'm not the best person to ask. It definitely has some degrees of gradual politeness, not nearly as much as Japanese though. > Does that also mean that Mandarin speakers will express themselves more or less the same regardless of the social status of the person they're talking to? A little? There's definitely class consciousness, plus a whole slew of fun LARP words from the communist revolution, not that anybody uses that in Taiwan. Unsure about the PRC. But in any case people definitely talk to me differently when they find out I own a restaurant, which makes me a "boss," which makes me apparently worthy of some new form of address, usually more serious and having less of what I call "taiwan noises" (there's a proper linguistic term, I don't know it) aka the "aahs" and "oh's" that end a sentence, and the tendency to leave one's mouth open after speaking. > I felt something quite different. I wouldn't say that they were not polite, because that was not the case in their attitude, but the way they formulated their request was rather direct and as if the result of the request was a given. This could just be ESL stuff. I probably sound like this in Mandarin. In fact I'm sure I do, I don't make Taiwan noises and I don't hedge so I probably sound quite abrupt and possibly even rude. I've asked and nobody's complained but I suspect it.

komali2 2y ago

> So does that mean Mandarin can be considered as more "straight to the point" and as not featuring a system of "gradual politeness" compared to other languages? It definitely feels more "straight to the point" to me than English, but I'm not the best person to ask. It definitely has some degrees of gradual politeness, not nearly as much as Japanese though. > Does that also mean that Mandarin speakers will express themselves more or less the same regardless of the social status of the person they're talking to? A little? There's definitely class consciousness, plus a whole slew of fun LARP words from the communist revolution, not that anybody uses that in Taiwan. Unsure about the PRC. But in any case people definitely talk to me differently when they find out I own a restaurant, which makes me a "boss," which makes me apparently worthy of some new form of address, usually more serious and having less of what I call "taiwan noises" (there's a proper linguistic term, I don't know it) aka the "aahs" and "oh's" that end a sentence, and the tendency to leave one's mouth open after speaking. > I felt something quite different. I wouldn't say that they were not polite, because that was not the case in their attitude, but the way they formulated their request was rather direct and as if the result of the request was a given. This could just be ESL stuff. I probably sound like this in Mandarin. In fact I'm sure I do, I don't make Taiwan noises and I don't hedge so I probably sound quite abrupt and possibly even rude. I've asked and nobody's complained but I suspect it.