We taught them words and sentences that had to do with eating out in a Western country. We acted out going to a restaurant and the kids could not do it in a polite way. They are Chinese and there is no changing them. It really made me laugh because they were saying, in English, what they usually say in Chinese. If they were to say these same things in America they would be considered very rude.
There are a few different kinds of restaurants in China but the majority are smaller and family owned. There are only a few people that work there and they could all be 'waiters'. When you enter a restaurant the 'waitress' might look around and point at a table where you should sit - there might even be other people at that table. The waitress / waiter is called a 服务员(fu wu yuan). It usually sounds like 'FUYUAN!' But if it is the owner or boss you call them 老板 (laoban) which translates to boss.
After you sit the 服务员 will show you the menu or if the menu is on the wall they'll ask what you want from that menu. They don't give you a minute with the menu, they stand there until you tell them what you want or give you paper so you can write it yourself. If you need a minute they'll walk away but they won't come back until you yell 'fuyuan!'. Imagine sitting in a restaurant where everyone yelled 'waitress!' every time they need something. It doesn't matter if they can see the 服务员, it's shouted until someone comes to see what they need. Or worse, if you know it's the boss that is working you yell 'boss!'.They don't ask you if you want something to drink or if you'd like anything else. If they walk away and you forgot to order the beer then you need to shout 'FUYUAN!'.
Usually these small restaurants specialize in one type of food so you rarely have to wait very long. There are no napkins. You must bring your own tissues. Your food comes, you eat, you pay, you leave. No one will come back and ask how your food is. No one will notice that you're finished eating and ask if you want the check. You yell 'Waitress! Check!' Everything needs to be asked for. It's easy to eat a meal for a little more than $1. There are many people eating alone so if you have to eat with other people it's not a big deal.I've seen some funny things in these restaurants. I think the most unusual is the guy who brought his electric shaver. He just started shaving while he was waiting for his food. Did he have it with him just for that reason? Who knows why most Chinese people do what they do.
Back to my students. They tried to do their dialogue with their newly learned Western vocabulary and sentences but their dialogues sounded something like this:
Waiter: Welcome to my restaurant. Sit there.
Customer: Give me a menu!
Waiter: Here you are. (walks away)
Customer: Waiter!!
Waiter: What do you want to eat?
Customer: Give me pizza and hotdogs!
Waiter leaves and brings back the food.
Waiter: Here you are.
Customer eats.
Customer: Waiter!!!! Check!
Waiter: Give me 500yuan!
It all sounds very demanding and they had a great time pretending to do all of this in English. There was just no taking them out of China. They will never understand the differences unless they go abroad.
For me, I'm still not used to shouting waitress from across the restaurant. I wait till I see someone, wave, and say hello. But, I think I'm going to be bothered eating in restaurants back home. I'll probably roll my eyes every time they ask me if I'm ok. It's nice to be left alone unless I ask for something. Eating out is a bit more relaxing here and it doesn't matter how loud or messy you are while you're eating. Everyone is and it's expected. Just make sure to bring tissues!Since tipping is taken out of the equation they obviously don't care much about the service. I enjoy that they're not trying to please me so I give them a bigger tip.
Eating out in China is one of my favorite things to do.
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