Chinese, like French, has two ways of saying you: an informal (ni) and a polite, formal version (nin). Combined with some stories I'd heard about how heirarchicl things would be over here I was pretty concerned and very careful to begin with.
But it turns out it's mostly not true. Students call their teachers ni all the time and noone's thought I'm overlydisrespectful just yet! In fact, I have the British disease - about 5 people have told me I say thank you too much, apparently friends don't need to thank each other for little things like telling the other one the time in mostof the world! Also waiters here are deemed below a thank you, and also a tip (no tips culture here, truely wonderful!)
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