Chapter 9 impolite

I have never been abroad, so I can't say what happened there. I have a friend who came back from abroad not long ago.He told me a lot of overseas anecdotes. According to him, the worst thing there is that capitalism tricks people.If you don't have money there, you can't even get a breath of air.No matter what you do, just say "get the money".Blowing your nose also forces you to pay a penny. There are quite a few places in our country that ask for money. For example, if you spit everywhere, you have to pay for it.But it's better than them anyway.For example, we don't tip here.It doesn't matter if you don't give a tip, at best the waiter doesn't give you a good look, or grabs your chair, and says something cursing: "Damn guy, what are you doing sitting here for nothing..." At best, that's all.

There are also waiters with a higher level of awareness. He doesn't even pull or drop the chair, and at worst he sighs, meaning: Oh, there are really such customers! But in foreign countries, if you don't tip, you will be in bad luck.Of course I don't understand, because I have never been abroad.But that happened to my friend.When he arrived in Italy, he wanted to see Maxim Gorky, but he had not yet met Gorky, which made him angry. It's all about the tip. It may be that my friend does not have enough money, or he may be old-fashioned, but he never gives tips anyway.Whether staying in a hotel or eating in a restaurant, no tip is given anywhere.

If he started it, he thought, he would go home penniless. There are almost too many service staff there.Unlike our country, there is only one doorman at the door. He sits there quietly, never causing trouble to others, and sometimes you can’t even see his face—buried in the newspaper.But there, thirty people can open a door for you.Give it a try, can you give me a tip? So my friend didn't give it to anyone. The first hotel he stayed in, the reception was good and polite.He went in and out of the gate, and the waiters took off their hats to him. He stayed for four days, was always very polite to him, and then he went to another city.As for the tip, of course he didn't give it as usual, he has to stick to the principle.

He came to another city and stayed in a hotel.You can see that things are completely different here: no one takes off their hats to salute, they talk indifferently, and they don’t have a good mood; . My friend thought: This hotel is too impolite, hum, I will leave now. As soon as he left, he stayed in another hotel.At first glance, it was even worse, almost a slap in the face!You throw boxes around, don't mention how bad the food is, ring the bell to call for someone, but no one comes, and talk badly. My friend didn't live for two days, and went to another city in frustration. Here the hotel porter almost got his foot caught in the crack of the door—it closed a little too quickly!His room is next to the water room on one side and the kitchen on the other.In addition, when the waiter walked past his door, he stepped on the floor loudly, and my friend suffered from neurasthenia again.Just like that, he returned home without seeing Maxim Gorky.

When he was about to leave, he ran into an old classmate by chance and told him about his troubles. The classmate said: "It's nothing strange, maybe you tipped too little! They put a minus sign on your box. They have to mark the passengers: tipping, they will give a '+' sign ; For those who are unreasonable, mark '-'." My friend ran back to take a look, and sure enough there were four "-" marks in the upper left corner of the box. My friend erased these "-" signs and returned to China. -------------------- ① one hundredth of a mark. ④

Translated by Gu Yaling and Bai Chunren