A Did you go to the bank to withdraw money?

你去銀行取錢了嗎？

B Today is so hot, besides I had so much housework to do. My friend came for a visit and stayed for two hours. I didn’t forget, but I had no time at all.

今天很熱，而且我有很多家務要做。我的朋友來玩，還呆了兩個小時。我是沒忘記，但我根本就沒有時間。

A So you didn’t. Is that right?

那么你沒有去。是不是？

B Yes. I’m sorry.

是啊。我很抱歉。

A Why didn’t you just answer my question directly? Why would Chinese answer questions this way? I simply asked if you did it or not. It’s a very simple question. And Chinese often give the reason before they would give a direct answer.

你為什么不就直接回答我的問題？為什么中國人會這么回答呢？我只是簡單地問你有沒有去。這個問題很簡單。而中國人常常先說明理由再給答案。

B Yes, I’m sorry. I know it bothers you very much. But I don’t know why Chinese sometimes would do this.

是，對不起。我知道你很煩這一點。但是我不知道為什么中國人有時候會這么做。

A You know, today I asked a student if he brought his dictionary with him. It’s a rule I made for the class that everyone brings a bilingual dictionary with them because sometimes they don’t understand me. The funniest thing is that this student gave me a lot of reasons and no direct answer.

你知道嗎，今天我問一個學生他有沒有帶字典來。因為有時候班上的人聽不懂我說的，所以我跟他們定了一個規(guī)定，那就是每個人帶一本英漢字典。最可笑的事是這個學生給了我很多理由，沒有一個直接的答案。

B But you know if he brought it or not, right?

但是你知道他有沒有帶，是不是？

A Yeah, after all the explanations like, it’s too heavy, I was in a hurry…whatever.

是，在所有的解釋之后，比如太重了，我出門時很急……等等。