2009年2月13日星期五

礼节与礼貌 礼节 and 礼貌, manners and customs

I'll be the first to admit I have no clue how to use 礼节, but I can tell you this.

品茶是一种礼节. and not 一种礼貌。

How I understand it, 礼貌 is a collective noun essentially meaning 'manners'。

礼节's uses are a bit more complicated. How I see it, it means a few related, but rarely used concepts in english: "ceremony", "protocol/custom", and "etiquette."

Understanding it as etiquette is not particularly useful as like 'manners' it is a collective noun with little real difference in use/meaning. Understanding it as a 'custom/protocol' or a 'ceremony' that is relating to etiquette/manners is the only way to make it's use understandable in English. Just remember that these 'protocols' and 'customs' are different, at least slightly different from customs (风俗) which I am hoping you already have a good grasp on because I don't feel the need to explain something like that because to an english speaker, those customs should be more understandable.

More later.

3 条评论:

  1. I have a sample to show as below.


    Chinese etiquette (中国的礼节 )
    Before Tom came to China, he tried to learn a bit about Chinese etiquette.when it comes to clinking wine glasses at a formal reception, it's polite to make sure that the rim of your glass is lower than that of the person you're clinking with.


    中国的礼节
    在Tom来中国前,他尽力学了一点中国的礼节。当在正式场合要碰酒杯时,要注意你的杯沿(儿)要比其他碰杯的人的杯沿(儿)低一些是比较礼貌的。

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  2. Thank you for the example. I've heard about this 'custom' and I remember some Chinese people not paying much attention to it while the Koreans were totally obsessed with it.

    As a collective noun like in your example, 礼节 is relatively easy to understand. It is when it has to describe a single piece of etiquette, a 'custom'/'protocol'/'ceremony' that it becomes a little confusing because english doesn't allow the word etiquette to be used that way.

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  3. So, are you James Reynolds or did you just take that text and translate it into chinese? Because the translation certainly 'interesting' in some places.

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