Impress Your Friends with These Awesome Chinese Compliments

"恭维" is one of the characteristics of the Chinese culture. The word   "恭维" means "pleasing other people" or "praising other people".

Sometimes we compliment other people to ask for a favor, sometimes we make compliments simply for building longer relationships.

In today's post let's learn common complimentary words Chinese people like to use in daily life.

1. 生活中 In daily life

In street or alleys, you can usually hear vendors calling people "帅哥"(handsome guys) "美女"(pretty girls). In some places, people say "靓仔""靓女" or "小哥哥""小姐姐".

Anyways, it's to compliment people that they have young and nice looks, and to attract them to come to their shops.

If a young girl walks into a clothing store, sales assisstant would usually say, "You have a such nice figure" "Your skin is so fair" etc.

If an elder woman walks into a clothing store, the sales tend to say "You look so yound/elegant..."

If you want to complement an elderly, you can also start from complimenting his/her child. This also applies to the situation where two moms talk about each other's kids.

Examples:

"Is this your son/daughter? He/She is so well-behaved." (这是你家孩子吗? 真乖）

"Your kid is so sensible." (你家孩子真懂事）

"Your kid is so adorable." (你家孩子真可爱）

2. 工作中 At work

At work, we also hear a lot of compliments, most of which are from employees to their bosses. But sometimes bosses would also use compliments, one of the most common phrases they like to say is"辛苦了" (thank you for your hard work).

It's normal to make compliments among co-workers to create a rather relaxed atmosphere. For example, in office, you might hear small talks like "Cool shoes, where did you get them?".   In addition to looks, Chinese people also like to play humble and compliment each other's abilities., for instance, "I couldn't have done it without your help" (要不是你，我真的搞不定）。

Besides bosses and coworkers, we also deal with a lot of clients. And we need to use proper compliments for a healthy and strong bond as well. When we meet them for the first time, we usually say "久仰久仰" "久仰大名" "久闻大名" etc. All these mean "I've heard about you for long, and I feel so honored that I finally got this opportunity to meet you." These are quite formal compliments,

Compliments also play a very important part in the Chinese drinking culture as in China, many business deals are done while drinking and eating.

Note, no matter whic situation, when we respond to compliments, we prefer showing modesty and say things like "No, no" (没有没有）or "Not at all" (不是，不是）。

In a word, to compliment is to overemphasize one's strength, praise someone with a little bit of exaggeration. But remember, never ever use a strength someone does not have at all to compliment.

We've talked a lot about compliments today. Do you like to hear compliments? What are some common compliments in your country or region? Welcome to share with us in the comments!