"dou1 xing2"

[NewUser]

Is "dou1 xing2" a good phrase to learn for situations that require a "either/whatever/I'm not fussed" response to a question?

eg

waitress: "which beer do you prefer?"

taxi driver: "which way do you want to turn at this intersection?"

[adrianlondon]

Probably.

I'm no native speaker (of Mandarin!) but I'd translate that back as "any" or "either". for "I'm not fussed" or "whatever" I'd probably go with 随便你 or 我隨便啦. I don't know which is better. The latter probably is, but I've used for former before and it seemed to have been understood ;)

While I'm here (I'm actually asking questions more than answering yours, sorry!), would I be right to translate "I don't care" -as 无所谓? Does that have the same kind of "make up your own bloody mind and stop asking me!" sense to it that the English can?

[Don_Horhe]

I think 无所谓 has more of a "It's all the same to me" meaning. The first time I heard it, we were in a Chinese restaurant and were choosing what to eat. I asked a Chinese friend what she wants and she said 我无所谓.

[adrianlondon]

I see. "无所谓" in that case seems to mean "I don't care about food, all I know is I'm hungry and I want to eat. Get on with it before I dip this serviette in soy sauce and eat that".

Whereas "都行" has a "I love food and eat everything! I'm so greedy" ring to it. So that's what I say ;) I've also said "你选择" which I hope is quite polite and means "you choose!". I should probably stick a 吧 on the end. I always forget to do that.

[Lu]

I usually use 都可以, but I suppose 都行 is equally good. Might be a northern-southern thing.

隨便你 is a bit impolite I think, means something like Whatever, suit yourself.

無所謂 in my ears would sound more like 'I'm not hungry and don't care what we order' than 'I'd eat anything right now', but I might be wrong.