邓炎昌

An English woman in a Chinese park came across an elderly Chinese one morning. Attracted by his long white beard she approached him and asked politely in Chinese:“爷爷，你几岁啦？” The old man looked at her in surprise. Turning to people nearby, he exclaimed somewhat indignantly：“她问我几岁啦！几岁啦！” The young woman had not expected such a reaction at all. Later, the misunderstanding was cleared up: her question would have been all right for a child, but for an elderly person she should have asked “您高寿？” or “您多大年纪啦？”
      This amusing incident illustrates a cultural as well as a language problem that sometimes comes up when Chinese and English-speaking people communicate. Chinese often use certain terms of respect when speaking to one's elders or superiors; they use expressions of humility when referring to oneself. But if this is carried over into English, the language sounds heavy and unnatural, as in this invitation to an American couple: "Would you honor me by coming to my humble home for a simple meal on Sunday evening?" It would have been far better to have said simply: "I'd like to have you come over for dinner Sunday evening." On the other hand, to many Chinese the straight-forward manner of address in English often sounds crude or impolite.
      Clearly, one needs to understand this cultural difference in order to communicate effectively.
      English tends to be fairly simple and direct, as can be seen from some typical examples given below.

In direct address:

      Notice that in English, such terms as respectful, honorable, esteemed are not generally used; nor are such self-disparaging ones as humble, unworthy, etc. even in translation it would probably be better to avoid "Please come to my humble home" or "We would like to visit your honorable organization".
      Much of the Chinese language of respect or humility is found in writing rather than in speech. Some of it is rather old fashioned and no longer commonly used. Still, there are certain expressions that one comes across today that would be useful to know how to render into good, natural English.

      The Chinese expression 不敢当 needs special mention here. How it should be translated depends on how it is being used. "I'll be glad to" (in answer to a respectful request such as 请您指导）or "I'll do what I can","I'm not really qualified." If in answer to praise such as "You're one of the top scholars (authorities) in the field," then “不敢当”（and similarly 哪里，哪里！）--implies that the praise is undeserved, that he or she is not worthy of the praise.

(原载《英语学习》）