美國來的“成語控”

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2017年12月的第一個周六，清晨，淺淺的陽光籠罩著山城，晨霧還沒消散。

James起了個大早，吃了早飯，匆匆趕往重慶北站。忙碌了一周，他買好了去萬州的高鐵票，犒勞自己去吃萬州烤魚，然后再到云陽玩玩。

這個37歲的美國人，言談間時不時會蹦出一兩個成語。他管這樣的生活叫“安居樂業(yè)”，說這和英語中的“work hard, play hard”（意為“努力工作，盡情玩耍”）“異曲同工”。

On the first Saturday of December, 2017, the morning sunshine shed its light over the mountain city while the mist was still lingering.

After a busy week, James decided to treat himself a railway trip to Wanzhou District to enjoy Wanzhou grilled fish and then to Yunyang County for a short travel.

In our conversation a couple of Chinese idioms keep popping out from this 37-year-old American man’s mouth every now and then. He used an idiom for the conclusion of his life here, similar to the expression“work hard, play hard” in English.

腳步丈量重慶Traveling in Chongqing

James畢業(yè)于美國喬治城大學(xué)。

2004年，他和爸爸、弟弟第一次來到中國香港，為了多了解中國文化，兩年后，他去到清華大學(xué)攻讀MBA。畢業(yè)后，輾轉(zhuǎn)來到了重慶，在一家金融機構(gòu)任戰(zhàn)略業(yè)務(wù)合作總監(jiān)。一晃就是三年。

“白天工作很忙，下班了就是屬于我自己的時間?！盝ames身上有著滿滿的活力，他把在重慶的生活安排得滿滿當(dāng)當(dāng)，幾乎所有業(yè)余時間都在探索中國文化，探索重慶。中國的成語是他的一條線索，引著他發(fā)掘未知。

James覺得成語很有趣，從一個成語中，他不僅能夠了解到中國的文化，還能知道不同文化間的差異。“比如‘班門弄斧’，漢語意思是在行家面前賣弄本領(lǐng)，實際上是中國人一種自謙的說法。但是，在西方文化里，這個說法是沒有的。這對我來說是一個很新的體驗?！?/p>

“人杰地靈”是他想到的第一個詞，用來形容重慶。來到重慶后，James一直用腳步丈量著這座城市?！拔矣X得來重慶最大的改變就是學(xué)會了享受山城生活?！彼f自己是“樂此不?！?，并且“樂在其中”。

星期六早上，他會去區(qū)縣，了解當(dāng)?shù)仫L(fēng)土人情。他去過酉陽龔灘古鎮(zhèn)，看過烏江天險，領(lǐng)略過山、水與建筑融為一體的景象，品嘗土家族特有的烏江魚；夏天，他會去涪陵，在雨臺山看滿塘盛開的菖蒲花……

James還能辨別不同地域間食物的差別?！半m然都是在重慶，但是每個地方的食物都會差異的。比如魚，萬州烤魚會烤得特別入味，奉節(jié)的烤魚會在里面加很多蔬菜，而三溪口豆腐魚的肉質(zhì)比前面兩種酥軟細嫩很多?！?/p>

James graduated from Georgetown University.

In 2004, he went to Hong Kong, China for the first time with his father and younger brother. Two years later, he attended Tsinghua University for MBA in order to get more about Chinese culture. After graduation, he came to Chongqing, worked here in a financial institution as the director of strategic business cooperation. It has been three years now.

“It’s quite busy at work by day, but after all this I got my own time.” James keeps a full life schedule in Chongqing and spends almost all his spare time in exploring Chinese culture and this mountain city. Chinese idiom is a clue for him in the exploration.

He deems that Chinese idioms are very interesting since from them he can know more about Chinese culture and differences among different cultures. “For example, ‘ 班 門 弄 斧 ’ means showing off one’s proficiency with the axe before Lu Ban, and in fact Chinese people often say it about themselves to show their modesty. But there is no such expression in Western culture, so it is brand new for me.”

“人杰地靈”is the first phrase he came up with to describe Chongqing with picturesque place and talented people. After settling here, James tries to go every corner of this city. “I think the greatest change happened to me after I came here is that I finally learned to enjoy living in a mountain city.”He even adopted two Chinese idioms to show how happy he is for the life here.

On Saturday morning he would go to the countryside to savor the local landscape and customs. He has been to Gongtan Ancient Town in Youyang County, experienced the thrilling rapids of Wujiang River and enjoyed the scenery of mountains,waters and building all together as well as Tujia nationality’s special Wujiang fish there. In summer days he would head for Fuling to appreciate the iris full bloomed in the pond at Yutai Mountain.

James can even tell the differences among dishes from different regions. “Take fish for example,Wanzhou’s grilled fish is more salted, Fengjie’s is added with plenty of vegetables, and Sanxikou’s is more tender and softer than the former two.”

腳踏實地學(xué)習(xí)Studying with Earnest Attitude

對于美食，James說自己是有“雄心壯志”的。他想成為做重慶菜做得最好吃的美國人。他曾經(jīng)做過宮保雞丁，把食材買回來，在廚房里忙活了一個小時，結(jié)果味道比餐館里的差很多。遭到現(xiàn)實“攻擊”，James決定報個烹飪班，“認真學(xué)一下怎么做重慶菜?！?/p>

比起做菜，James學(xué)習(xí)中文更加努力，他知道必須“腳踏實地”才能有所成。

他在手機上下載了“財新周刊”，“每天吃午飯的時候我會看里面的文章，當(dāng)遇到不認識的，就會在手機上積累下來?！爆F(xiàn)在，他的手機里軟件里，已經(jīng)記錄了3000個中文詞組和成語，每個字旁邊標注上繁體字和拼音。每周一到周三晚上，他都要上兩節(jié)漢語課，學(xué)古文、成語故事。

“我覺得很有意思，有的成語有幾百年、甚至上千年的歷史，卻依然適用于現(xiàn)在的工作和生活，比如‘塞翁失馬焉知非福’。所以，我對漢語的學(xué)習(xí)要精益求精?！盝ames的訝異中雜糅著他“小小的”計劃。

正因此，James很注重區(qū)分漢字的聲調(diào)?！巴粋€漢字，不同聲調(diào)代表著不同的意思，比如‘重慶’的‘重’字，二聲和四聲代表的意思是不一樣的，所以我要認真區(qū)別他們的發(fā)音?！北M管不能手寫漢字，James已經(jīng)學(xué)著靠拼音拼讀了，交談中發(fā)現(xiàn)，他的發(fā)音很標準。他笑著說，“漢語真的博大精深，我還要學(xué)習(xí)，努力提高漢語水平?！?/p>

James is pretty ambitious about cooking,aspiring to be the best American cook of Chongqing cuisine. He once tried Kung Pao chicken, but after an hour’s work in kitchen, it turned out to be not as tasty as the restaurants’. The blow urged him to attend a cooking class so as to “systematically learn how to cook Chongqing cuisine”.

Compared with cooking, James makes more efforts in learning Chinese, knowing that only to be down-to-earth can he make achievements.

He downloaded Caixin Weekly (an App providing financial and business news) on the phone.“I always read the articles on the App at lunch time and take notes on the phone when encountering new words.” Up to now, there have been 3,000 Chinese phrases and idioms recorded on his phone,and each word is marked with the traditional Chinese character and Chinese pinyin. He takes two Chinese lessons from every Sunday to Wednesday.

“It’s very interesting. Some of them boast a long history of hundreds and even thousands of years and still applicable to today’s work and life, such as the idiom ‘misfortune might be a blessing in disguise’. So I should keep improving my study.”Besides his amazement at Chinese language’s magic, he got a plan for this.

To this end, James pays great attention to the difference among tones in Chinese pronunciation.“For a same Chinese character, different tones represent different meanings. For example,Chongqing’s ‘Chong’ in Chinese has different meanings when pronounced in the first tone and the fourth tone. I have to be very careful.” Though still cannot write, he has learned to spell Chinese words via pinyin and from our conversation his pronunciation is pretty good. “Chinese is really an extensive and profound language, and I got to keep learning for improvement,” said him, laughing.

入鄉(xiāng)隨俗之感Fitting in Chongqing

不懈的語言學(xué)習(xí)和美食探索，James漸漸體會到了什么叫入鄉(xiāng)隨俗。

剛來重慶時，他的第一頓午餐吃的“大隊長”火鍋，那時對辣椒還不感冒，現(xiàn)在早已不在話下。他過去很少吃羊肉，發(fā)現(xiàn)重慶人冬天喜歡吃羊肉，也漸漸喜歡上了羊肉。他曾在上海工作，那時喜歡吃漢堡和臺灣菜。現(xiàn)在再去上海，他最喜歡吃的變成了生煎和蘇州羊雜面。

臨近春節(jié)，他在漢語課上得知中國人有過年貼年畫的習(xí)俗。“貼在門上的年畫，代表了一個家庭對未來一年生活的美好向往。以前也看到過中國人的家門上會貼年畫，但不知道這從唐宋就開始流行了，有這么悠久的歷史?！盝ames滿臉驚訝和喜悅，今年，他打算在自己家門上也貼一幅年畫，祝福來年好運。

讓James欣喜的，除了融入這里的生活，還有這座城市更加國際化的發(fā)展。

他清楚地記得，三年前，他第一次去奉節(jié)看天坑，要坐五個小時火車到萬州，再轉(zhuǎn)車到奉節(jié)，“現(xiàn)在去萬州，坐高鐵只需不到兩小時。”

James 還能舉出很多例子?！?014年6月，蘋果手機在觀音橋開了第一家直營零售店，這之前，只有北京、上海、廣東和成都才有……2015年5月底，重慶可以直飛泰國甲米島了?！薄?/p>

更讓他激動的是，這個春節(jié)回家，他再也不用轉(zhuǎn)機了。2017年10月，重慶開通了直飛紐約的航線，他已經(jīng)訂好了回家的票?！半m然我是一個外國人，但我屬于重慶，想讓重慶更好?！?/p>

The ceaseless language learning and delicacy exploration let James come to know what is exactly“When in Rome do as the Romans do”.

When he was new around Chongqing, the first lunch here is at Chongqing Captain Hot Pot.He was not that into pepper then, but now it is a totally different story, and mutton, too, when he finds out that local people like it in winter days.When he worked in Shanghai, his favorite food were hamburgers and Taiwan cuisine, and now it turned into pan-fried pork buns and Suzhou mutton offal noodle if he goes there.

The Spring Festival is approaching now, and he learned that Chinese people have the custom of pasting New Year Prints. “The paintings pasted on the door signify a family’s yearning for a better life in the future year. I used to see Chinese people do this, but had no idea this custom originated from Tang and Song dynasties (618-1127 CE) and had such a long history.” In full amazement and joy, he told us he was going to put up New Year Prints this year,wishing for a lucky following year.

What delights James, in addition to fitting in here, is that this city is getting more and more international.

He remembers clearly that three years ago he had to take a five-hour train journey to Wanzhou and then transferred to Fengjie for the view of Tiankeng Land Slot there. “Now it only takes less than two hours by high-speed train to Wanzhou.”

James can name multiple other examples for this city’s development. “In June, 2014 Apple Inc. opened the first retail store at Guanyinqiao.Before this, only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Chengdu had the stores. And by the end of May in 2015, there was a direct flight to Thailand’s Krabi Island…”

Above all, a more exciting news is that he does not have to transfer anymore when going back home this Spring Festival. In October, 2017, Chongqing launched a non-stop flight to New York. He already booked a ticket of it. “I’m a foreigner, but I feel that I also belong to Chongqing and I want to see this city get better and better.”