Conversations - Have you eaten?

The most fun part about learning a foreign language is to chat with real people. That’s probably the only way to test your skills. If people can understand you, and you can understand them, then that’s a real win.

“您吃了吗？” (Nín Chīlema) is a funny way that old-school Chinese, especially northerners, greet each other. It literally means “Have you eaten?”

Most of the times, this question does expect an answer, and a typical response could be, “吃啦。您吃了没？” (“Yes I have. What about you mate?”)

Tip: You’d better always say that you have eaten, instead of telling the truth when you actually have not. The reason for that is because you want to save the trouble of being invited to dine with the other person if they choose to do so.