Take the 2-minute tour ×  I've noticed in China that people
don't tend to use as many 'polite' words as we do in western
languages, like 'please' or 'thank you'. I want to make it clear
that I'm not complaining about this; I find that such niceties
are often overused in English, to the point where they become
insincere.  In English I would automatically say 'thanks'
whenever someone does something for me. In China I found I got
some quizzical looks doing this with 谢谢 (xiè xie).  Perhaps
another example is when in restaurants I've heard people
screaming 服务员! (fú wù yuán) across the room, whereas westerners
would raise a hand, or try to make eye contact, or say 'excuse
me'.  So my question is, in China, how polite is too polite?
When is it appropriate to use things like 谢谢 or 麻烦你 (má fan nǐ),
and when should I restrain the impulse to avoid sounding weird?
share|improve this question Most of the time a nod would do it.
–  Kabie Dec 20 '11 at 11:10 I was about to ask this, only
related to 谢谢, but I see you did f