Todd: So, Simon, you live in Japan and you were just in Germany. How is the service in restaurants different in Japan than it is in Germany?
托德:西蒙,现在你在日本生活,而之前你在德国生活过一段时间。日本餐厅和德国餐厅的服务有什么不同吗?
Simon: Yeah, I can talk about that. Well, I might be stereo-typing here and I'll talk about maybe Japan, Germany or Europe, and then North America. Ah, I think in Germany there was definitely an emphasis on efficiency, so when I went into a pub and I said, "I wanna order a beer" and Munich is famous for beer, so there's many kinds, so I was thinking."What should I order? What should I order?" and the server said, "Well, you can't decide, I'll come back in a minute. Thank you" and then quickly off. In Japan, if I did the same thing, the emphasis would be on politeness, so the server would wait and if I said, "Mm, what should I order?" the server would patiently wait and says "Take your time. I'm here," you know. You know, "Thank you for deciding," things like that. And you know, in my home in Canada, Vancouver, you know, they would try to be cool and friendly, so everybody would be like "Hey, did you try our special? Would you like to drink our special beer today?" you know and smile, you know, and that's that, so Japan the emphasis would be on politeness. In Germany, or Europe, the emphasis would be on efficiency and in North America the emphasis would be on friendliness or being cool.
西蒙:有,我可以谈一下。我可能会有些刻板印象,我会谈一下日本、德国、欧洲和北美的不同。我认为德国绝对是注重效率的国家,比如我走进一家酒吧说“给我来杯啤酒”,因为慕尼黑以啤酒著称,所以那里有许多种啤酒,那我就会想“我要点哪种啤酒呢?我要点哪种啤酒?”这时服务员就会说,“你现在好像还没有决定点什么,那我一会儿再过来为你点餐。谢谢你”,之后就会快速离开。而日本注重的是礼貌,所以如果我做同样的事情,服务员会等在旁边,如果我说,“嗯,我要点什么呢?”服务员会耐心地在旁等候,并说“慢慢来,不着急。我就等在这里。”你知道,他们会说“谢谢你的决定”这类的事情。你知道我家在加拿大温哥华,那里的氛围又酷又友好,所以服务员会说“嘿,试试我们的特色啤酒吧?今天来杯我们的特色啤酒怎么样?”,他们会微笑着说这种话。所以日本注重的是礼貌。而德国,或者说欧洲注重的是效率,而北美注重的则是友好或是酷酷的感觉。
Todd: Interesting.
托德:真有意思。