"What should I do?"
Translation:我应该怎么办？
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1586
Came here to say the same thing.
If you wanted to ask exactly "What should I do?" then the Chinese would be 我应该做什么？
- 675
怎么办 is correct but very vague. I could be asking you what YOU should do, or asking you what WE should do. It's dependent on the context. You can also say 我该怎么办
办 means "to do, to handle, to manage". So literally the sentence means "How should we handle [it]." But 怎么办 is also a set phrase meaning "what to do? what should I/you/we... do?" So you could also just say 怎么办 without 我应该 to express the same thing.
- 777
Why are we saying 怎么 here and not 什么?
If we are asking the question in the sense of 'what should I do (e.g., to resolve a problem)', then I understand 怎么 - we are essentially asking how to accomplish some goal.
But if we are asking 'what should I do (e.g., with the rest of my life)', then its really a question of What, not How... so 什么?
怎么办 is a set phrase. As far as I know, it's the kind of thing you say when there's currently a problem that needs to be solved but you don't know what to do about it.
- 818
I agree - in fact the 'should' (as opposed to simply, 'What to do?' really seems to me to push it in the direction of 什么
- 1055
In other sentences "what should i do?", "what should we do?" is translated just 怎么办。 Why isn't it accepted here?
- 1586
In fact, when a Chinese is asking what to do, they typically simply say 怎么办 (or 我怎么办)? The reason 应该 is required in this case is the prompt is asking What should I do.
I totally wrote this too. I (and Chinese people I knew) would say this all the time.