请 and 让

[bossidy]

In a short discussion of 请 and 让, A Practical Chinese Grammar (Samuel Cheung) indicates that parents 让 their children, while children 请 their parents. However, the latest Chinese Breeze (出事以后) book has this sentence:

下午，他让爸爸回家休息，放心睡觉，自己在病房看护妈妈

So I'm just left wondering if Cheung is overstating the issue or the sentence is inappropriate. Thanks in advance.

[doraemon]

In a short discussion of 请 and 让, A Practical Chinese Grammar (Samuel Cheung) indicates that parents 让 their children, while children 请 their parents.

I can see where this book's going. 请 is a request, which thereby makes it politer whereas 让 means to 'allow', indicating that it's a superior giving permission for an inferior to do something in this case.

下午，他让爸爸回家休息，放心睡觉，自己在病房看护妈妈

However, I think 让 can also be used here as well, after all, it's not a strictly definite rule and I also believe that because the child and the dad are from the same family, it doesn't really need to be that courteous. ;)

[dumdumdum]

the second sentence would indicate that the father might not went home 'willingly' cos afterall it was the mother being hospitalised. so the son deviced some ways of persuation to 'let' the father get home and rest. he might have coaxed or insisted, or maybe he assured the father that he'll take care of the mother in hospital, so that the father can go home to take a rest.

[renzhe]

让 does mean "allow", but it's generally used when you let somebody do something, or have somebody do something. 请 is asking somebody politely to do something. The part with the parents was more of a general comment, and it sounds like it was referring to children and their parents, not grown-ups and their parents.

In the sentence you mentioned, the father and the son are in the hospital, and the son convinced the father go home and get some rest. The 让 doesn't mean that the father had to ask for permission in this case, or that the son ordered him to leave (like when the mother sends a child to fetch some milk). 让 simply indicates that the son let the father leave and the context of the sentence implies strongly that the son did it because he cared for the father, and that it was an amicable situation.

It's completely appropriate.