it also answers another question I had about why people always say 'I'll go first.'
Yes, it's as you say it's kind of a pleasantry/apology for leaving first when someone else is still working hard. I say it myself in Chinese all the time. I just dug this out of a post. I'd normally just link to it but after the censorship crackdown, I locked a lot of posts and some of them I put too high a security lock on them and from work I can't access my HB filter (I'm not sure if that makes any sense), but anyway I wrote this:
I left work just after midnight tonight and a whole bunch of my colleagues were still there working. I pulled on my coat and walked out to where they were working and said: "我先走" (wo xian zou) which is what you say when you leave first. It means: "I'm leaving first" but it literally translates as: "I first go". In Cantonese, they say: "我走先" (ngo jau sin). Same characters but they say: "I go first".
I was a bit bemused at how I've gotten into the habit of saying the Chinese pleasantries that I used to giggle were 'stating the obvious'.
I joke about it all the time with Chinese.
When you come back, Chinese people always say: "回来了" (You have returned) and in response, you say: "我回来" (I have returned). If they see you with a shopping bag, they will say: "买东西" (you've been shopping) and you say back: "买东西" (I've been shopping).
It's just courtesy-speaking/pleasantries and I used to find it kind of odd, but now I'm used to it.
The thing is, as I was walking along tonight I suddenly realised that I've been in a big glass house throwing stones because English is also full of stating the obvious redundancies.
When someone comes back to work from holidays or something, you'll say: "Oh you're back" or "you're back from your holiday". When someone's clearly going home, you'll say: "Oh you're off" or "you're going home". When someone walks into your office, you'll say: "Oh you're here". When they leave, you'll say: "Oh you're going now".
I realise I seem to say 'oh' a lot. I'm not sure what purpose the 'oh' really serves except to make a statement seem less abrupt.
In any case, the above observations add absolutely nothing to the conversation and you're not saying anything that no one doesn't already know but I suppose it's a way to fill in those silences that we seem to dislike so much.
In The Painted Veil, Kitty is frustrated that Walter is uncommunicative when she makes an observation abou the weather:
Walter: I've got used to not speaking unless I have something to say Kitty: If nobody spoke unless they had something to say the human race would soon lose the power of speech.
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Yes, it's as you say it's kind of a pleasantry/apology for leaving first when someone else is still working hard. I say it myself in Chinese all the time. I just dug this out of a post. I'd normally just link to it but after the censorship crackdown, I locked a lot of posts and some of them I put too high a security lock on them and from work I can't access my HB filter (I'm not sure if that makes any sense), but anyway I wrote this: