Originally Posted by
anacapamalibu
What's proper.... where?
I was under the impression in mainland China it was correct to address
a waitress as "xiao jie".
Now I understand that is offensive.
Should refer to them as fu wu yuan (fuyen) or xiao mei.
Taiwan- Xiao Jie is OK
Singapore- Xiao Jie is OK
Obviously you aren't refering to a waitress the same is in a KTV
but what is preferred address by mainland Chinese?
I was going to say, fuyen just sounds like that, in reality Chinese actually say fuwuyuan - to the foreign ear it sounds muffled and shortened. Another example is huanying guanglin (欢迎光临) - said fast in local tongue sounds like (hai-wawning).