点餐抓瞎？中国人学英语爆笑囧事
Language mastery in mouth of beholder
Westerners are often daunted by the thought of learning Chinese, mainly because of the perceived complexity of Chinese characters. In fact, if they knew that they'd be able to get by if they had to learn only pinyin, they might not be as tentative.
一想到学中文,很多老外就打退堂鼓,主要是觉得汉字太复杂.而如果他们知道只要学会拼音就过得去,他们也许会想试一把.
But how do Chinese feel about using English?
但中国人学英语的感觉又如何呢？
Hezi Jiang, a native of Beijing's Chaoyang district and a China Daily USA reporter in New York, said: "There is a popular joke in China: A Chinese man flies to America. On the plane, the flight attendant approaches him and asks, 'Coffee or tea, sir?'
《中国日报》美国版驻纽约记者、北京朝阳区居民姜禾子（音）说："在中国有个广为流传的笑话：一个中国人坐飞机去美国,在飞机上空乘问他,'需要咖啡还是茶,先生？'
"The man thought, I've had coffee and tea. 'I'll have an 'or'. Thank you', he said."
"这人想了想,自己已经有茶也有咖啡了,'我要还是,谢谢.'"
"To me, a lot of the embarrassing things happen with ordering food," Hezi said. "For more than a year, I never ordered salmon no matter how much I wanted to have a grilled salmon, because the word is hard to pronounce. I used to pronounce the 'l' in salmon, and the waiter or waitress would correct me by asking, "sam-mon"?
姜禾子说："对我来说,点餐时经常遇到尴尬.我已经有一年多没点过三文鱼吃了,尽管我非常想吃烤三文鱼.因为很难发对音.我以前总把单词中的l字母音发出来,服务生就会纠正我,问道,'三文鱼'？"
"I found that really embarrassing, so I stopped ordering it. I had mahi mahi instead. I love the name, so easy. Also, I didn't like it when restaurants offered special menus. The waiter would say a list of things that I had no idea of, and I would look into his or her eyes, nodding.
"我觉得很尴尬,所以我不再点三文鱼吃了.我点鲯鳅鱼,我喜欢这个名字,很好发音.我也不喜欢餐厅提供专门的菜单,服务生说的一长串我都不懂,我只能看着他或她的眼睛,点点头."
"But it feels great when I can understand an item or two he or she said. Most times, I would order that thing just to prove that I could understand.
"但如果服务生说的其中一两样我能听懂,我就感觉很棒.大多数时候,我就点我能听懂的来吃,就为了证明我能听懂."
"I also found that we say 'yes' a lot when we don't understand. I remember once at a brunch, a waiter asked my friend "white or wheat"?
