德国人的节俭生活

英语自学网

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Wessi
Ossi
au fait
porcini
€
主持：lsy34
校对：z_i_y_u_n
翻译&注解：cherryxyr
答疑：阿焰
口语点评：lsy34
口语节目地址：http://bulo.hujiang.com/menu/2120/item/707083/Germans really are frugal. They like boiled potatoes, and good for them, say I. You might argue that this was Berlin. And Berlin was, of course, partly in East Germany. So Berlin frugality has a different background. And it is true, that East Berliners were mocked by Wessies when the wall came down, because they knew nothing about fancy food.
Just after the two halves of the city were reunited, a West German magazine had a cover story with a picture of an East German housewife. You could tell where she came from because of her awful East German perm. She is holding a cucumber and the caption says, "Look, my first banana."
The point is that bananas were such a luxury that East Germans couldn't even recognise one. But the host at my dinner party wasn't an Ossi, but a Wessi, completely au fait with bananas, and even perhaps porcini. No, this was just German frugality. You come across it in lots of ways. I go to a supermarket under a railway arch and it resembles a warehouse, goods stacked to the red-bricked roof with no sense of style or flashy salesmanship. It's price that matters, even for fancy wines. This is not a poor people's supermarket. There is wine there at €60 a bottle. But you can bet your bottom euro that it would be cheaper than anywhere else. Even the rich watch the pennies.德国人真的很俭朴。他们喜欢煮土豆。我想说，真是好样的！你可能会说这是在柏林。当然，柏林曾有一部分在东德境内，所以柏林人的俭朴有着不同的时代背景。这话说得没错，柏林墙倒塌时，西德人曾嘲笑东柏林人对美食佳肴一无所知。
柏林刚刚统一后，西德的一份杂志发表了一篇封面报道，杂志的封面是一名东德家庭主妇。看她那一头糟糕的东德卷发你就能知道她来自东德。她手里拿着一根黄瓜，旁边的标题是“看，我的第一根香蕉。”
这个封面想表达的是，由于香蕉属于奢侈品，东德人甚至都不认识它。但招待我的人并不是东德人，而是西德人。别说是香蕉，他甚至可能连牛肝菌都认识。所以，这并不是东德式的俭朴，这就是德国式的俭朴。你可以从许多方面感受到这一点。我到铁路拱桥下的超市购物。这个超市看上去像一间仓库，商品摞得高高的，一直顶到红砖屋顶。整个超市完全没有任何设计，也没有让人眼花缭乱的促销活动。价格才是最重要的。甚至连高档酒也不例外。这家超市不是为穷人开放的，里面有的酒一瓶标价60欧元，但你可以用最后一欧元打赌，这里的酒绝对比其他任何地方的酒都便宜。就算是富人都会看紧自己的每一分钱。