How to make change in Chinese?

[abcdefg]

Here in the SW (Yunnan) I always err on the side of being over-polite instead of risking being overly brusque. I figure that as a foreigner, I'm not terribly likely to get it exactly right, and errors of the first kind seem to be received better than errors of the second kind.

Must confess, however, that I don't use 您 a lot in daily interactions when out and about. Probably not enough.

#18 --

Does anyone use 找錢 to ask for change? And how would you word it?

I use 找 when there's something left, such as in the situation where I have handed the cashier a 20 Yuan note and my goods cost 15, so I expect 5 Yuan back. Similarly, might tell a particularly helpful taxi driver 不要找我。(Keep the change.)

[skylee]

And is it 永春, 詠春, 咏春, or all three?

咏 is the simplified form of 詠. What I usually see is 詠春, I don't know if 永春 is the same as 詠春.

[Kobo-Daishi]

What I usually see is 詠春, I don't know if 永春 is the same as 詠春.

I only asked because when I was searching for "找錢", one of the first entries returned was for this site where they seem to use both 永春 and 詠春 interchangeably.

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!bT8bJzaeGRn17sBjsg7dgley8g--/profile

I guess the guy is an expert in the fighting art and would know the difference.

Kobo.

[renzhe]

Can anyone tell me how common 您 is in Taiwan?

I was always under the impression that it was a northern thing, and not used much in the south, and certainly not Taiwan. Having never visited Taiwan, I might be very much off here, though.

[skylee]

As far as I know 您 is common in Taiwan. Most people in hotels, restaurants, department stores etc that I have come across used it when they spoke to the customers.

[OneEye]

skylee is right, it's very common.

[renzhe]

Thanks, both of you.

[Guest realmayo]

Is it commonly used to address one's parents in Taiwan? I'd had the vague idea that that was more a northern thing, less a southern thing -- and that Taiwan used 您 for politeness, not so much for addressing parents?

[OneEye]

I think you may be right about that, though I don't have much experience listening to kids talking to their parents. To me it seems more like a polite thing that's used with customers, strangers (sometimes), and teachers.