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Don't mention it

I was working in China at a new industrial plant start-up. There were a few situations that prompted my co-workers and me to use a word that in America refers to bull waste. We later came to learn that non-English speaking workers thought we were very polite to each other by saying bu xie (pronounced "buu shee-eh") which in Chinese translates as "you are welcome" and means "don't mention it".

Sent by: Bill

Comments

Anonymous 2011-09-22

Ok, nobody is getting the meaning of Bill's article - he was NOT trying to say "You're welcome" or "Don't mention it". He was cursing the situation, but others thought he was saying the above phrases! Glad the Chinese didn't really understand what he what saying!

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Roger (Deutschland) 2008-10-16

Or you can try bie ke qi, this also works. Bie can be used here short for bu yong.

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yylim 2008-09-26

Why dont you try bu yong ke qi? It's closer to 'youre welcome'.

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Vickysmilin 2008-09-11

Well, it's the difference of culture .. hahaha. Learning a second language is hard isn't it? Bu yong xie is more casual, actually.

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Shirley 2008-09-12

I firstly thought that bu xie here is another bu xie which means don't care. Pinyin withought phonetic symbol could be confused with many meanings in Chinese. That might be one of the reasons why Mandarin is difficult to study.

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Lily (China) 2008-09-01

You'd better say bu yong xie, which is more standard.

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Marton 2008-10-29

You should say bu ke qi, which means don't be so polite.

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Louise-Mei 2007-09-11

Yep! Literally means 'no thanks': bu - no, xie - thanks. 'No thanks' as in don't thank me as you said 'you are welcome' there is no need to thank.

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