耐心也许是中国人长寿的原因

　　我到过世界上的很多地方，但是从没有见过哪国人像中国人这么有耐心。我从他们的言谈举止和日常生活中感受到了这一点。

　　我记得，有一天，我从河南漯河去山东潍坊旅行。不巧，那天火车晚点了7个多小时。乘客本应该在下午1点出发，但不得不等到晚上7点。我开始有些焦虑，并向工作人员抱怨，但其他乘客都坐在那里安静地等待。其中一些人已经开始在椅子上睡觉了。没有一个人去问到底怎么回事。就当我想过去退票的时候，其中一名乘客叫住我：“喂，朋友，你最好再等一会儿，火车可能很快就来了。”我环绕四周，令我印象深刻的是，每个人都在安静地等待。

　　实际上，这如果发生在我的国家，整个火车站有可能会被人们的怒火“点着”了：到处是乘客的抱怨，甚至还会有一些人去揍火车站的相关人员。

　　还有一个例子。我坐在一辆从河南郑州去安阳的大巴上，另一辆车停在我们前面，接走了一名乘客。我们的司机也停车了，并试图阻止那辆车接那名乘客，对他而言，这是他的地盘，其他车辆不应在这条路线上载客。我不理解这种规则，但这让车上的乘客站在原地等了近两个小时，直到警察赶来才解决了问题。我们的司机和另一部车的司机差点动手。但是令我吃惊的事，两辆车中的乘客都只是安静地坐在那儿看着整件事。没有一个人抱怨，也没有一个人试图劝阻两名司机。

　　在中国，公车慢悠悠地行驶在路上时，没有人会抱怨，他们宁愿舒服地在车上打盹儿，让司机就这么开着。说实话在我的国家，可不一样，如果开慢了，乘客会责骂司机，下次他们就不再坐这辆车。

　　中国人的耐心不单是表现在等车上，也存在于日常生活中。中国人相信任何事都应该“慢慢来，别着急。”因此他们从容而有耐心。这样的评价不可思议，但我猜这是中国人耐心的关键所在。“慢走，慢慢吃，慢慢学”，在我看来，这些是鼓励你在做事情时，要有耐心。也许这是中国发展的秘密所在，因为对任何事他们都不着急，而这种冷静在很多国家是缺乏的。我们总是行色匆匆，因此我们的一生也很快就过完了。

　　有一天，我和几个朋友去餐厅，里面已经有了许多人，你知道午饭时间通常如此。我们坐下来点菜，但不幸的是，我们被遗忘了，后来等了快1个小时，甚至是比我们晚到的顾客都吃完了。朋友叫来了餐厅经理，并向其投诉，经理向我们道歉。当我建议去另一家餐厅吃饭时，朋友们摆摆手让我再等一会儿。如果这事发生在我们那儿，顾客早就向经理咆哮了，并且再也不会来这家餐厅。但那天，我们一直等着，而且没有人生气。

　　逐渐地，中国朋友建议我应该“悠着点儿”。在中国的生活和在尼日利亚真的完全不同。也许我所说的耐心在中国的城市比在乡村要少，但我确信它存在于每个中国人的生活中，而且我确实因此而佩服他们。也许，这就是为什么中国人长寿的原因——他们心态轻松，时刻保持耐心。

　　（本文作者曾是河南某学校外教，现居北京）Chinese are full of patient.By ElvisIhavebeen traveling to many part of the world but I have not seenpeoplewho have patient like the Chinese. I see it on what they say,whatthey do and in their daily life. I remr one day I was goingfromLuohe to Weifang in shandong province. Unfortunately thetrainedwas delayed for more then 7 hours. Infect, what happened wastheschedule for the train was changed without notice. We oughtleaveby 1pm but have to wait till 7pm in the night. I lost patientandwanted to go and return my ticket. I started to worryandcomplained to the workers there but all the other passengersjustsat quietly waiting. Some of them have even startedsleeping.Nobody went up to ask what happened. As I was about to goandreturn the ticket one of them call me and said “hey friend,youbetter wait a little maybe the train will came very soon.” Ilookup and every body was just waiting in silent. I was quite movedbythis.Infect, if it was in my country, the whole train stationwouldhave been on fire, and with people complaining, even some willbecharging to fight with the officers in change of the trainstation.I guess Chinese are trained to obey orders and havepatient. Thisis really good for them. My example is not on thisone, there wasanother occasion, I was in a bus going from Zhengzhouto An Yang, Apassenger bus stopped in front of us and picked apassenger, ourbus driver stop too and was trying to stop the otherbus from takenthat passenger, according to him, this is his routeand the otherbus ought not to pick a passenger on that route. Ididn’tunderstand that rule, but it kept us on a stand still foralmosttwo hours until the police came and solve the problem. Ourdriverand the other driver were even trying to fight. But whatsurprisedme most was the passengers inside the two buses just satquietlywatching. Nobody complained or even attempt to stop thefight.Iremred when I was in my country, one day I was on a busgoing toanother city, the driver, wasted ten minute to the time heought tohave moved, every body in the bus came down and ask forrefund. Tous time is extremely important, everybody is in a hurry,I can’teven tell where we are going to in such in a hurry but ithas beenpart of our life.In China, the public bus move at what manypeoplewill unhappily called slow pace, and nobody will complain,ratherthey would be sleeping comfortably and allow the driver to dohiswork. Tell you the truth over there in my country its not thesame,you will see people causing and abusing the driver, and nexttimethey will not enter that bus, the feel the driver is soslow.Thepatient I am talking about is not only seen in the bus andtrainstation but also in Chinese daily life. Chinese believethateverything should be 慢慢来,别着急。And they take their time andhavepatient in doing it. This comment is magical and I guess thisisthe key to Chinese patient. “ 慢走，慢慢吃，慢慢学。。。。。and so on.To methisis great encouragement to be patient on what ever you aredoing.Maybe this is the secret of Chinese development because theyarenot in a hurry in anything but this a philosophy that has nottakenroot in many countries in the west and African. We are alwaysin ahurry and that’s why our lives end in a hurry. I remr a day Iwentto a restaurant with some friends, and there were manypeopleinside , you know how it used to be during lunch, we sat downandordered for meal, but unfortunately, we were forgotten andwewaited for almost one hour for our food but it didn’t come,evensome customers that came after us have already finished. Myfriendsummoned the manager of the restaurant and complained to him,heapologized and when I told them that we should leave and gotoanother restaurant, they just waved it out buy asking me to waitalittle they will bring the food center away. To be frank, inmycountry probably, we will start to shout at the manager andwillnever come to that restaurant again, but that day we justwaiteduntil they served us. And I found out that none of them wasangryabout it.Little by little they have thought me to have patientinwhat ever I am doing. I have another experience when I was goingtoChang Ping district in Beijing and the bus I broke down wewaitedpatiently inside the car until the driver got some body torepairit. Life here and my country is not really quite the same. Ifitwas in my country, we will all take back our money andenteranother car. Probably this patient I’m talking about is lessin thecity than in the countryside but I am sure it exist in thelife ofevery Chinese and I do admire them because of this. Perhaps,that’swhy most of them grow very old because they take life veryeasy andhave patient in all do.

　　相关专题：青年参考