320 Excuse Me May I Ask

Robin Mitchell is a singer and songwriter from the city of Bristol in the UK. He learns from ShaoLan how to say “excuse me, may I ask ..” in Chinese, a phrase which ShaoLan says she will use at least 30-40 times a day when she is in China! In fact, the first character of this word can be used in all kinds of contexts, one of the most useful being in a restaurant situation, so ShaoLan takes the chance to teach Robin the most useful restaurant phrases that all involve the same word, including “it’s on the house!”

The way to say “excuse me” or “please” in Chinese, is 請問/请问. The literal meaning of the first character 請/请 is “please” and the second character 問/问 means “to ask”, so “please ask” is the way to say “excuse me” in a very polite way.