This is a short blog entry about the overuse of the word “delicious” in China. I always hear, “Do you think this is delicious?” “What foods do you think are delicious?” Native speakers almost never use “delicious” in a question. For example, I might say, “Wow, this pizza is really delicious” but I would never ask, “Do you think this pizza is delicious?” Instead I would ask, “Do you like this pizza?” or “What do you think of this pizza?” or “Do you think this pizza is any good?” In fact, I almost never use the word “delicious” at all. I rarely say “this pizza is really delicious” I usually say, “This pizza is really good” or “this pizza is amazing”.

If I were asking someone if they like pizza in general, not a particular pizza, I would just ask “Do you like pizza?”

Most of the time you can just use the sentences, “Do you like …..?” or “I like ……” if you are talking about food in general.

Do you like ice cream?

I like hamburgers.

If you are talking about a particular something you could say “This …. is really good”

This salad is really good. This hamburger is really good.

I hope it helps and I hope to read your comments.

Andrew

In China, I often hear the words “open” and “open-minded” used incorrectly and I want to help clear this up.

First of all if you describe someone as being “open” it just means that the person shares a lot of their stories, true feelings, and ideas with other people. They don’t keep a lot of secrets about themselves. It doesn’t mean that this person has sex with many different people. It has nothing to do with that.

Also, being “open-minded” means that you are able to use your brain to consider all aspects of a situation. It means that you can consider new ideas and arguments. It also means you are not prejudiced. This term refers to thinking and not behavior. For example, being “open minded” doesn’t mean you would allow your child to smoke. It only means that you would be able to listen to your child’s opinion and ideas and try to understand why they might want to. If a father says to his son “You can’t smoke. It’s really bad. That’s it. You must listen me because I am your father and I am right. I don’t care about your ideas.” then he is not open-minded. A father who is open-minded might say something like, “Son, I really don’t want you to smoke. I know that a lot of people your age are smoking and I understand that there is a lot of pressure on you. I hope you feel free to talk to me about this. I really care about you and your health.”

Remember that being open-minded should always be used in a good way. It just means that you try your best to consider all possibilities and ideas before making your decision. It means to do your best to understand people and situations.

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Andy