研究生英语,听说课程,Michael讲座的台词。.docxVIP

Do As Romans Do Today we’re going to talk about an idiom called ‘Do as Romans do.’ or ‘When in Rome, do as Romans do.’ And this is very interesting to me because I have actually been to Rome. And when I was in Rome sometimes I did as the Romans did, and sometimes I made a mistake of not doing what the Romans did. And one example is this I was traveling by train and before that I had traveled by train in China, and as all of you know when you travel in China by train whenever the train stops, you can get off the train and buy food, talk to your friend, do whatever you need to outside for a while, and later get back on the train, so in China I do as the Chinese do. So when I was in Rome, I made a mistake of doing what the Chinese do, not what the Romans do. And the train stopped and I had a friend in the city where I was going and I wanted to talk to him by phone, the train stopped and I saw a phone booth outside of the train, a public phone. So I was used to China, I left my bags including my passport on my seat of the train, and I went outside to make the phone call, I dialed the phone and as I was waiting for my friend to answer, I turned around and the train was leaving without me. I should’ve noticed the Romans were not getting off the train, except for the ones that we’re going to that station, so I didn’t do the Romans did and I lost everything. I never got that back, all of the things were that day all gone. So I learned the hard way, I learn very much the hard way ‘do as the Romans do’. But let me ask you a question. Do you think you should always do as the Romans do? What if the Romans do something bad? Then we shouldn’t do what they do, right? So when you’re in another culture, because that’s what this idiom is really about when you’re going to another country, you’re going abroad or going to another culture. It has limitations, because if the people there do something that’s not good, should I do it? For example, you study abroad, you go to my country or s