新航道冬令營： 中美不同的年齡觀 old or young

    when li xiaofeng’s family moved to america from a small town in liaoning, china, they brought not only their language, but also their town rules, customs and culture. one of the rules is that young people should always respect(尊敬) elders. unfortunately, this rule led to his very first embarrassment（困難）in the united states.
    he had a part-time job as a waiter in a restaurant. once, when he was serving food to a middle aged couple, the wife asked him how the food could be served so quickly. he told her that they had gotten their food quickly because he always respected the elderly. as soon as he said that, her face showed great displeasure. his manager, who happened to hear what he said, took him aside and gave him a long lecture about how sensitive(敏感) americans are and how they dislike the description “old”. he then walked back to the table and apologized to the wife. after the couple heard his reason, they understood that the problem was caused by cultural differences, so they laughed and were no longer angry.
　 in his town in china, people are proud of being old. not so many people can live to seventy or eighty, and people who reach such an age have the most knowledge and experience. young people always respect older people because they know they can learn much rich experience from them. however, in the united states, people think “growing old” is a problem since “old” shows that a person is going to retire or that the body is not working well.
 

    here many people try to keep themselves away from growing old by doing exercises or jogging, and women put on makeup, hoping to look young. when he told the couple in the restaurant that he respected the elderly, they got angry because this made them feel they had failed to stay young. he had told them something they didn’t want to hear. after that, he changed the way he had been with older people.