Can I do X first

[ZC]

Hi y’all! I found myself in a situation the other day, where at a restaurant we were asked what we’d like before having been gave a menu. The phrase someone said was 我们等一下吧看看一张菜单吗。We got the point across but it seemed like there was confusion for a second. What is a better way to say ‘can we look at a menu first for a bit?’ in y’all’s opinion?

[Flickserve]

想看菜单。

 

有菜单吗？

 

 

[ZC]

XD I guess we overthought it! That seems simple now that you say it!

[DavyJonesLocker]

As a general comment, this is quite common issue

A foreigner quite often uses too many words in Chinese. Its because we think in English and do a translation of a sentence that seems logical to us, but sounds unnatural to a native. Chinese often are very economical in use of their language. 

 

I am told  regularly that I and others could shorten my Chinese down a lot 

 

In the situation above, my friends just say 等一下 and it's implied as to the reason why.

 

For something to drink my initial reaction  would be to say 你想要喝什么， whereas a native Chinese might simply say 喝什么

 

 

[Messidor]

有菜单吗？is there a menu?

我们想先看下菜单。 we wanna look at the menu first.

你们有什么招牌菜推荐吗？can u recommend any specialties?

[vellocet]

My go-to phrase is 菜单给我看一下.  

 

It's more a problem when they hover over me, waiting for me to instantly digest a 40 page menu and make choices straight away.  I usually go with 我在看看一下，等五分钟啊, but I've never been comfortable with that one.

[歐博思]

给我一分钟看一下（菜单）吧

[DavyJonesLocker]

8 hours ago, 歐博思 said:

给我一分钟看一下（菜单）吧

 

Are you native Chinese ? Sorry I have forgotten.

Sounds native in English but o believe that sentence would not be used by a native  from my experience. Open to correction!  I used it a lot and was constantly corrected 

 

 

[889]

看菜单之后就点！

 

But not quite so abrupt if the place has pretensions.

 

And if they hover, it's 看完了之后就招你来, tossing in a 别等着! if necessary.

[Publius]

The purpose of this interaction is that you get to see the menu. So just ask for a menu. 有菜单吗 is good enough. You can refine it when you language skills improve, to make it more polite/natural or whatever. No need for the futile exercise to form an appropriate sentence in your native language and then translate it back and expect it to have the same effect. State your intent directly as a five-year-old would do, because your expressive abilities in the new language are on par with a five-year-old. Leave all the nuances to a more advanced stage.

[歐博思]

12 hours ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

Are you native Chinese ? Sorry I have forgotten.

I'm a little proud to have disguised myself from you thus far. No I'm not. I would still say that sentence, under the pretext I already 有菜单吗'ed. I'd probably add a 先 in there now I look at it again. What corrections did they give you when you said it?

 

On a side note, I love that Publius mentioned nuance. I feel that sometimes people will try and tell you 'we only say it this way'. The notion that nuance doesn't exist bothers me. I love nuance. 

[ZC]

30 minutes ago, 歐博思 said:

What corrections did they give you when you said it?

They didn’t really give any corrections (I think that might have been a little awkward) and our Chinese friend sitting with us didn’t laugh or anything. The server definitely understood after a second, but I’m definitely still at the point where I am adding a lot of extra words since I’m still translating the English sentence I want then saying it which is pretty slow. I’m mainly wondering what a less stilted way to convey the same info.

[Flickserve]

5 hours ago, ZC said:

I’m mainly wondering what a less stilted way to convey the same info.

 

Just comes with experience and being in situations.