和老外聊天的地道口語第85期:入鄉隨俗

Wang Wei: pardon me. Could you.please pass me the tissue?
Simon: sure, here you are.
W: thanks, I didn't expect the dish to be so spicy. Are you ok?
S: yeah, I think the food is alright, it's not too spicy though it's a little salty for me. But you are Chinese, you should have known better.
W: well, not every Chinese can handle spicy food in the way people from Sichuan and Cuizhou provinces can. Back where I come from, people don't eat a lot of pepers and chilies.
S: Oh, I see how this food can be really hard for you. I can sympathize with that. I stayed in Sichuan for a year. The food was difficult at the beginning. Every dish was so spicy. After a while, I got used to the taste, and now I won't consider anything a real dish if it isn't spicy.
W: yeah, you can increase you tolerance for spicy food, but so far, I haven't had the need or the opportunity. Every timr I try spicy food, it is a total disaster for my nose and eyes.
S: I completely understand. I didn't intend on liking spicy food at first either, but when you have no other choicess, you've got to adapt.
W: yeah, I guess that's a typical example of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do."
S: exactly.

對不起,請把紙巾傳給我好嗎?
好的,給你.
謝謝你,真沒想到這個菜這麼辣,你還好吧?
恩,我覺得飯菜還可以,不太辣,就是有點鹹.可是你是中國人啊,你應該知道的.
這個,不是所有的中國人都想四川人和貴州人那樣能吃辣.在我的家鄉,人們就很少吃麻辣口味的菜.
哦,那吃這個菜你一定很難受了,我完全理解.我在四川待了一年,最開始很不適應當地的食物,每一道菜都那麼辣.但是過了一陣之後,我開始習慣那個口味了,現在吃菜,要是沒有辣味,就感覺不過癮.
是啊,吃辣是能培養出來的.但到現在我還沒有機會也沒有必要培養一下.所以,現在一吃辣菜,我的鼻子和眼睛就遭罪了.
我完全理解.剛開始我也沒想要培養自己吃辣,不過當時真的是沒有別的選擇了,就不得不做出改變了.
我猜這就是典型的"入鄉隨俗"了吧.
確實如此.

spicy:of food 食物 having a strong taste because spices have been used to flavour it 加有香料的;用香料調味的
spicy chicken wings
香味雞翅膀

sympathize:to feel sorry for somebody; to show that you understand and feel sorry about somebody's problems 同情 ~ (with sb/sth)
I find it very hard to sympathize with him.
我覺得很難去同情他。

tolerance:the ability to suffer something, especially pain, difficult conditions, etc. without being harmed 忍耐力;忍受性;耐力;耐量 countable uncountable
tolerance to antibiotics/cold
對抗生素的耐受性;耐寒力
Tolerance to alcohol decreases with age.
酒量隨年齡的增大而減少.