"I don't think I understand. It may be a language difference."¹ This place does translate between different tongues. Magnus is not speaking Mandarin, and parts of speech differ drastically between languages, so "pronouns" may have an entirely different use to him. Qi Yan knew this, but it didn't occur to her that her gender might be indicated by the language others use, in ways she cannot perceive. "I would prefer if most people assume I am a man, and treat me as such. Whatever language indicates that is what you should use. Will you explain it to me?"

¹Modern Mandarin differentiates between "he" and "she" in spelling but not pronunciation. Before the 20th century, it did not differentiate. Qi Yan's first language is not specified in canon, but as far as I can tell none of the languages in the families it might belong to use gendered pronouns.