By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Why the chinese people's first response is invariably "Méiyǒu“ ？
I have observed that whenever I ask Chinese friends / colleagues to help me for translation for things like change of phone plan, change in travel plan, change of appointment, extension of house contract, refund of deposit money etc. etc.. ...invariably, the first answer they give is "can not be done -- Méiyǒu" !!
Why Chinese people's first response is always "Méiyǒu".
Why not "Let's give it a try" ?
Come on !! Try first, before you give up !!
Ahoy there, Good Noel!
The answer is lack of initiative, low incentivization and low risk-tolerance.
Well, the things you mentioned, requires some amount of convincing the other party. Which people are reluctant to do, unless of course there is monetary benefit involved. Though I agree with you, there is no "let's give it a try" thing... unless you actually push them for it, or (only if you are too desperate) maybe make up a story that you did it in other city and it is possible... 
Other then that... I never ask for help from the same person more than maybe twice. If you ask anything more than that, you get "mei you" song.
Honestly, I truly hate asking people for help for every other small thing... But god dammit nothing is in Inglish that I can comprehend. So I am trying to learn Chinese!!
Ask your boss, he/she will command your colleagues to go out of their way to help you.
I always help my foreign friends/ colleagues if I can.
Not sure about your case.
Maybe you should ask them instead.
Ahoy there, Good Noel!
The answer is lack of initiative, low incentivization and low risk-tolerance.
it is easy to say no. The path of least effort.
The strange thing is actually, with examples such as phone subscriptions, travel plans etc, that in China they are actually changeable. In my beloved Scandinavia, where people are punctual and trustworthy, you can bet you you will have a hard time changing anything unless there is regulation that allows for it. In China, you can change everything even the things that there are regulation against. It is just a matter of will and scratching the right people in the right place.
7Abs:
lol and yet people in Scandinavia attempt to change it, against all odds, whereas they don't in China.
Scandinavian:
of course, if you don't challenge the world it will never improve.
