A Question for Those Fluent in Chinese

[bossel]

Asked my girlfriend (from Guangdong), but forgot to post here.

What I described above about how Pinyin could be used in case you forgot a character, is not the way it is done in China. They seem to usually substitute another character with a similar meaning (not a similar sound), even if it's not 100 % the same.

Has probably something to do with this "face" attitude: Never admit your lack of knowledge!

[Golgo_13]

Asked my girlfriend (from Guangdong), but forgot to post here.

What I described above about how Pinyin could be used in case you forgot a character, is not the way it is done in China. They seem to usually substitute another character with a similar meaning (not a similar sound), even if it's not 100 % the same.

Has probably something to do with this "face" attitude: Never admit your lack of knowledge!

She she.

Or in your girfriend's case, to che.

BTW, I still don't like the Pinyin Romanization of using "Q" to represent the "ch" sound, "R" for "n", etc. But then, I never got used to "R" being pronounced as an "H" (for the first letter of a word) in Portuguese (Brazil)