A prose about doing as the Romans do when you are away from home

I haven’t eaten Lanzhou beef noodles for a long time. I happened to see a beef noodle restaurant a few days ago. The signboard reads the familiar words "Lanzhou Beef Ramen". As a Gansu native, and I have a special liking for Lanzhou Beef Ramen, how could I not go in and try a bowl? Pushing open the door and entering the noodle shop, a woman dressed as a Muslim greets her with a smile and an accent from Qinghai. I thought to myself, it must be authentic ramen. I guessed it right, a bowl of beef ramen made me feel very comfortable. I went back the next day and wanted to have a bowl of beef noodles for a change. A few minutes later, the rice was served, a plate of fried noodles. As I ate, I thought, did I say something wrong or did they not hear clearly? After finishing the fried noodles, I’m so excited! I didn't get what I wanted to eat. I went back on the third day and deliberately said in the most standard Mandarin: "Boss! Have a bowl of beef noodles, the kind with soup."

After a while, the meal was served. Why! I was speechless, it was fried noodles again, plus a small bowl of beef soup. After the meal was finished, I said to the boss when I was paying: "Boss! The rice I ordered was made by pulling the noodles into the beef noodle soup. You have been making me fried noodles for two days."

The boss and the wife of the boss both laughed and looked very embarrassed, and apologized to me: "Ah... I'm so sorry, no one here eats the kind of noodles we have back home. The noodles are all fried noodles."

I went there again today, and the lady boss smiled happily when she saw me coming in, and hurriedly poured me a cup of tea. At this time, the boss himself came out and crawled to the table where I was sitting and asked me kindly what I wanted to eat. I pointed at the painting and said, "You don't have to pull the noodles out, but you can cut them into pieces and put them in the beef noodle soup. It's the kind of beef noodles."

The boss nodded vigorously and said, "I know. I know! Just wait a moment."

After a few minutes, the lady boss took out the dough, smiled proudly at me, and gently put the bowl in front of my eyes. There is a questioning look in her eyes. Is this the right day?

Looking at the noodles in front of me, I said against my will: "This is the taste of my hometown!" I quickly picked up the chopsticks and took a bite, nodded, and made a very satisfied expression. But I thought to myself, is this beef noodles? This is beef braised noodles! Oh my god! Why is it so difficult to eat beef noodles?

There are countless questions in my mind asking myself, will I still come here to eat beef noodles tomorrow? Forget it, if it doesn't work out tomorrow I'll have to cook it myself. Walking home after dinner, I was reminded of the scene of eating noodles in Chongqing three years ago.

It was the same time three years ago when I first arrived in Chongqing. People in Chongqing mainly eat rice. And my hometown mainly eats noodles. Although I'm not picky about food, I got a little tired of eating rice three times a day after arriving in Chongqing. Change your taste! I saw someone selling Chongqing noodles in the cafeteria. I ran over to the lady selling noodles and said, "Sister! Buy me a bowl of rice."

"We don't sell rice here!" After they said this, I ignored them and just served others. Guests.

I don’t understand this. Are you selling food to others but not to me? Is it because my Mandarin is not up to standard, or is it because people know that I am an outsider and bully me and look down on me? Forget it if you don’t sell it, will people starve to death if they don’t eat noodles?

After a few days, I really didn’t want to eat rice anymore. I ran to the elder sister’s window again and said, “Sister! Buy me a bowl of rice.”

“We don’t sell rice here!”

“That’s the one he ate. Rice!" I pointed to my colleague who had just brought a bowl of noodles.

The eldest lady glared at me with big eyes and said: "Those are noodles, not rice!"

"What? Noodles are not rice?"

"Rice is rice, noodles are noodles!"

I couldn't figure it out and said to myself: "Rice is rice? Noodles are noodles?" Yeah! Never mind. "Sister, I want his kind of noodles."

I have been in Chongqing for more than ten days, and I finally tried it. Later I learned that in Chongqing, rice refers to rice. In my family, both rice and noodles are collectively called rice. If you go to a noodle shop in Chongqing and ask to buy a bowl of rice, they will definitely say no.

This is why everyone speaks Chinese, Mandarin, but different places have different explanations.

It is so difficult for Chinese people to speak, and it is even more difficult for foreigners to understand. Some people may say that if everyone speaks Mandarin, it won't be like this. In fact, this is not necessarily true. A funny thing happened to me when I was working in Chongqing. A tank is filled with water, with a layer of oil floating on top. My job was to fish out the floating oil in the tank. When I was thinking of a solution, a colleague said to me, there is a ladle behind the door, you can use it to salvage something. I walked behind the door and took a look, but there wasn’t one! There is only one spoon. I shouted loudly: "No, there is only one spoon. Can I use a spoon?"

"The spoon won't work, it's too small! Look for it again! I'll just put the spoon there." "He said loudly to me

"What are you looking for? There is only this small place!" After saying this, I went over with a spoon.

He saw me holding a spoon and said, "Isn't that a ladle?"

I said, "This is a ladle, which one is a ladle?"

"This is Lao'er!"

"This is Lao'er!"

"Lao'er!"

"Spoon!"

In order to prove whether it was Laoer or Shaoer, we argued for a long time and laughed for many days. It's really ridiculous to argue endlessly over what to call an object. Speaking of which, I remembered another thing related to language habits. Although this is not a joke, it is worth mentioning. After coming to Jiangsu, I often worked with this squad leader. One day I had to lift something, but I couldn't lift it, so I called him to help. We both squatted down and tried our best, and I shouted: "One, two!" I tried hard, but he actually looked at me stupidly as I was not using any force. I got a little angry and said to him: "I asked you to work hard with me, why don't you work harder?"

He asked: "Where is your three?"

"What? Three? Come on, try harder!" I looked at him and said.

He squatted down again, seemingly exerting himself. I squatted down and shouted again: "One, two!" When I shouted two, I tried hard, but he didn't use any force again. This time I was really angry and said loudly: "If you want to help, just help. If you don't want to help, forget it."

He was also anxious and said quickly: "I'm waiting for three, where is your third?"

“What three?”

“Didn’t you shout until three and then try harder?”

It was only then that I realized what was going on. People in this place say one, two, three. When you shout three, use your strength. My hometown is one, two. When you shout two, use your strength. What an insight!

People often say that when you go to a country, do as the Romans do. From then on, if I tried hard with the locals, I would just shout: "One, two, three!" The three was just right, and I was assimilated by this place again.

People go out of their homes to make a living. Every time they go to a place, they have to adapt to the local environment and integrate into other people’s life circles. Since I started working, I have traveled to so many places. Every place has its own characteristics, its own dialect, and its own language habits. If we want to live well in a foreign country, live comfortably and have smooth interactions with the locals, we must live according to the locals' habits.

Really, after traveling to so many places, there are Lanzhou beef noodles everywhere, but the taste is different; Chongqing hot pot is available all over China, but the taste is different from one place to another; all Chinese people They all speak Mandarin, but their pronunciation is also different. There are Trump and Jingpu. This is the effect of assimilation. If you live in that kind of circle, you will be infected by that kind of circle. It can also be described as red when close to vermilion and black when close to ink. So some things should not be taken too seriously. If you take things too seriously, you will fall out of the circle. We don’t need to leave a name through the ages, and we don’t need to learn from Qu Yuan’s spirit of dissent.