cultures are interesting aren't they? in chinese culture (high context language) if i offer you food or drink, it is polite to say no...even if you are really hungry and i am supposed to give it to you anyway (unless you really make a big show of saying no) so you know the offer was sincere
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heh... Ghinese are super skeptical and never let on. Bulgarians are funny in a similar way also. Product of a corrupt culture I think? Bulgarians got that skeptical posture from 500 years under the turks.
interesting. yeah, Chinese tend see themselves as more flexible less ridgid than westerners. like high-elves to humans considering 5k year history of civilization etc. and this can drive English speaking westerners crazy because we have an 80% low context lang. in Chinese, you gotta listen to the tone, read the context, and the face...only then will you know if 'no problem' means really no problem or there was a problem and problems happen...why are you so upset...etc. 😅
haha. I'm always reading the soft things as overriding above the hard things. it has taken a long time for me to learn to gtfo when i get strongly mixed messages on different levels.
I'm never hard to read. i don't break bonds without severe strain. I am probably too generous with people tho, very often... this last few months has been thematic with "just gtfo, move on, this is going nowhere".
in contrast to Japanese,
where it is often extremely rude to refuse.
although the specifics depend on the hierarchical relationship between guest and host.