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I've been told by a native speaker that 慢一点 is functionally the same as 小心一点, which in english is essentially "be careful". Can someone else confirm?
I find it a little odd and would consider this a mistake if it was in english, especially if being slower doesn't help (e.g. you're already doing it slowly but carelessly, or you need to do something quickly but decisively)
I don't think that 慢一点 is the same as 小心一点.
I am from Manchuria, and as far as I know, sometimes when people are gonna leave each other, a person may say 慢走 or 慢点走 as an expression for "Goodbye". Maybe a personal bias, I don't think 慢走 is frequently used.
I also agree with you that, doing things slowly may not always help.
There is a particular context in which 慢一点 may be interpreted (functionally) to be the equivalent of 小心一点. As is often the case with languages, a lot of the nuances comes from the way the speaker and the listener interact in their dialogue, and I can see a case where this can be true.
As you know 小心一点 means to be more careful or cautious, and it is often a general expression that has a very similar meaning across most situations.
On the other hand, 慢一点 is a little bit more subject to the context, and as a general expression it just means to slow down (literally little bit slower). However, in the context where there is a sense of danger or unexpected situation encountered by someone, this can have the meaning of "Stop" (and think about what's happening).
So you can see how in this case 慢一点 can functionally be the same as 小心一点 when the intent of the speaker is for the person listening to take more care regarding the actions that they are about to undertake, or the situation that they are facing.
慢一点 means take it easy or slow down on what you are doing.
Eg. 做慢一点。
