和老外聊天的地道口语第85期:入乡随俗

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.

对不起,请把纸巾传给我好吗?
好的,给你.
谢谢你,真没想到这个菜这么辣,你还好吧?
恩,我觉得饭菜还可以,不太辣,就是有点咸.可是你是中国人啊,你应该知道的.
这个,不是所有的中国人都想四川人和贵州人那样能吃辣.在我的家乡,人们就很少吃麻辣口味的菜.
哦,那吃这个菜你一定很难受了,我完全理解.我在四川待了一年,最开始很不适应当地的食物,每一道菜都那么辣.但是过了一阵之后,我开始习惯那个口味了,现在吃菜,要是没有辣味,就感觉不过瘾.
是啊,吃辣是能培养出来的.但到现在我还没有机会也没有必要培养一下.所以,现在一吃辣菜,我的鼻子和眼睛就遭罪了.
我完全理解.刚开始我也没想要培养自己吃辣,不过当时真的是没有别的选择了,就不得不做出改变了.
我猜这就是典型的"入乡随俗"了吧.
确实如此.

spicy:of food 食物 having a strong taste because spices have been used to flavour it 加有香料的;用香料调味的
spicy chicken wings
香味鸡翅膀

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.
我觉得很难去同情他。

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
对抗生素的耐受性;耐寒力
Tolerance to alcohol decreases with age.
酒量随年龄的增大而减少.