Accepting presents
huasen
September 22, 2008, 11:32 AM posted in General DiscussionDoes anyone know any good vocabulary for accepting presents?I'm assuming there is a standard polite way of doing this, much as there is of dealing with compliments.
sushan
September 23, 2008, 06:48 AMBusiness cards seem to be passed with both hands. Are you supposed to receive presents with both hands too? I made a single hand accepting-gift faux pas in Korea.
In China I was at first a bit embarrassed by the amount of gift giving, by people I hardly knew. I read somewhere though that accepting a gift from someone is a way of giving them face.
pearltowerpete
September 23, 2008, 09:10 AMHi sushan,
changye gave a very good reply. I would emphasize that in my experience, the most common way to graciously accept a gift is with repeated 谢谢s. For a smaller favor or gift you can add an 啊a5， as in 谢谢啊！ （ＦＹＩ： This is also a good particle to add after 再见zai4jian4！） You can also say 太破费了tai4po4fei4le "it's too expensive" (humbly implying that you don't deserve such fine things) but this seems a bit old fashioned.
Some books advise you to say 小意思 xiao3yi4si when giving a gift, but Chinese friends have told me that this is not so common anymore because it is frequently used when bribing officials.
And finally, yes, it's good to give gifts with both hands, as this shows in a way that the item is an extension of your body or at least that you take it seriously (even though while you are giving it you can protest that you are ashamed to be giving such a piece of garbage 不好意思！).
Face giving can be win-win, and of course it's nice to offer something like one of those helpfully packaged Saran-wrap covered fruit baskets when you go to somebody's house for dinner.
changye
September 23, 2008, 06:30 AMHi huasen,
谢谢你送我生日礼物。(birthday present)
谢谢你给我这么好的生日礼物。
谢谢你送给我这么好的礼物。
谢谢您送给我这么漂亮的礼物。
I think that just saying "谢谢" would be OK, but it's important to repeat it twice like "谢谢，谢谢" with a big grin on your face, or you can make it a little more cordial by saying "太谢谢你了!".