Ahhh! Just answer the question!

[webmagnets]

I have a chinese friend who doesn't recognize questions. When I ask him question he just smiles.

Is there a way I can politely say "Just answer the question!"?

[jbradfor]

If your friend does not understand you, then that is your fault for not phrasing it in a way that he can understand.

The fact that he just smiles means that he does not understand what you are saying. [i should know, I do that all the time when talking in Mandarin ] So just saying "that was a question" is just going to point out that he didn't understand it, and unless you are good friends (or this is language exchange), he will just lose face. And even if you point out that was a question, he didn't understand it, so you'll need to repeat it anyway.

Since the way questions are formed in English are different than in Chinese, he just might not be used to the way you are phrasing it. Try phrasing it different ways, and making it more clear that it is a question. You could even start by saying "I have a question."

[renzhe]

Which questions? Maybe he doesn't want to answer them?

[David Wong]

You could try starting your question with... "请问。。“，”我想知道...", "我想问你一件事情。。。“， or ending with "你对这些事有什么意见。。什么观点。。。?".

[roddy]

And your friend has a friend who doesn't know how to take a hint.

[大肚男]

I think David's suggestion is solid gold.

Whenever I'm talking to my girlfriend's friend, and I want to ask a question I always start with "我有一个问题要问你“ and I notice that they actually pay more attention to what I'm saying after saying this.

[Iriya]

I'd rather use 想 instead of 要. 我(有个问题)想问下...