商務禮節美語第163期:Special Needs 特殊需要(下)

公關部主任Janet Liu召集下屬開會，詢問中東代表團的活動安排。上次說到，不同宗教有不同的飲食習慣：穆斯林吃Halal，猶太人吃 Kosher。讓我們聽聽Janet還有什麼建議。

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Janet Liu: And you might also want to reconsider the trip to the Karaoke bar. muslims are forbidden to drink alcohol, although Jewish people can.

P: Wow, thanks for the info. We almost committed quite the social faux pas!

Janet提醒Silvia和Pete，穆斯林不喝酒，所以去酒吧唱卡拉OK恐怕有問題。Pete說自己差點兒犯了social faux pas社交錯誤。

J: I did the same thing early in my career when I took a group of Indian businesspeople to a Chinese restaurant. It turned out half of them were vegetarian Hindus.

S: I'll fire off an email to both groups today to inquire about their dietary preferences.

P: And I'll try to find a nice piano lounge where they can either drink alcohol or other beverages.

Janet承認，自己剛出道的時候也犯過錯誤，把印度人帶到中國餐館去吃飯，結果發現其中一半人是印度教徒，吃素。Silvia說，她會發電子郵件，fire off an email 給客人，詢問他們有什麼特殊的飲食要求。Pete說，會重新找個既能喝酒，也有其他飲料的地方。

J: For future reference, you should always consider the culture of your visitors and try to adapt as much as possible to them. These people are our honored guests and it would have been terrible to offend them.

S: Absolutely, boss.

P: Yes, good points.

S: But what if we can't find a restaurant with Halal or Kosher food?

J: Check with them first, but one way to make sure everything is OK is to go to a vegetarian restaurant. Can't go too wrong with vegetables.

Janet建議說，實在不行，就找一家素食館，肯定不會錯。

P: I was just thinking: maybe I should check if the hotels allow smoking in the rooms or not. I'll send an email to ask if any of the group are smokers.

J: Good thinking. OK, I got to run. Keep me posted on the restaurant issue.

S: We were thinking of a pen set made of jade with a gold trim. The set is embossed with the name of the seminar and each participant's name.

P: Absolutely.

S: Wow, Pete. We really dodged a bullet there!

P: Well, as the old saying goes, "You live and you learn."

Pete忽然想到，客人裏可能有人抽菸，所以要問問旅店是否允許吸菸。Janet臨走時說I got to run. 我得趕緊走了。她還說，Keep me posted.有消息隨時告訴我。

Janet走後，Silvia說，We really dodged a bullet. 躲過了一個槍子兒，意思是真懸，差點出錯！Pete的回答是 "You live and you learn." 活到老學到老。