商務禮節美語第4期:砍價(1)

Gina帶美國老闆Jason去購物。

Gina: Good morning, Jason. How did you sleep? 早上好，詹森，昨晚睡得好嗎？

Jason: Pretty well, thanks. Still feeling the effects of jet lag a bit, but last night I got at lease six hours of rest. 挺好的，謝謝。但是還是有點受時差的影響，但是昨晚我睡了至少6個小時。

G: Great! So, are you ready for a full day of shopping? 很好，你做好全天購物的準備了嗎？

J: Yep. Let's do it. I'm pretty excited! 是的。我們出發吧。我挺激動的！

G: I know a place that should be perfect. It's called the "China Friendship Shopping Center" and it's pretty much like an American mall-except with more variety. You can even buy a live chicken there if you want. 我知道一個很不錯的地方。叫中國友誼購物中心，有點像美國的商場，就是商品的種類不是很全。如果你需要的話，在那兒甚至可以買到活着的雞。

Jason雖然有時差，但晚上睡得不錯，做好了去購物的充分準備。Gina要帶他去“中國友誼購物中心”，It's just like an American mall, 跟美國的購物中心很象，mall is spelled m-a-l-l, mall, mall，是美國購物中心的通稱，mall，裏有很多店家，出售各種商品。

J: Live chicken? (Chuckle) Thanks, but no thanks. me about bargaining. How can I do it like a local? 活着的雞？（咯咯）謝謝。跟我說說砍價吧。我怎樣才能像個當地人那樣砍價呢？

G: Well. I'll be honest and say you'll never be as good at bargaining as a local person. You're a foreigner and the sellers can see that. you're smart, you can get bargains that are not too far away from the "local price." 嗯，老實說我從來都不擅長像個當地人那樣砍價。你是外國人，買家能看得出來。但是，如果你很聰明，也能砍到和當地人差不多的價。

J: Cool! Teach me! 酷！教教我！

Jason聽說購物中心還能買到活雞，覺得很好笑，說thanks, but no thanks，意思是謝謝，但不必了。Jason讓Gina教他討價還價，bargain is spelled b-a-r-g-a-i-n, bargain, 是砍價的意思，Gina說，你長一張老外臉，不可能 as good at bargaining as a local person，意思是不可能象本地人一樣砍價，local is spelled l-o-c-a-l, local，意思是當地人。不過如果懂行的話，還是能拿到跟本地人差不多的價格的。

G: For starters, you want to do a lot of scouting first. You've got to know what things cost. 首先，你要大致心裏有個數，那些東西大概值多說。

J: Someone told me to go to a convenience store and see how much a soft drink or a tube of toothpaste costs. The idea is that by comparing the prices of those items, you can figure out the relative prices of everything else. 有人告訴我有個便利店可以知道軟飲料或者牙膏得多少錢。辦法就是通過比較這些商品的價錢，你能知道其他同類的商品需要花多少。

G: That could be helpful. But when you go into a shopping es become very flexible. You have to be able to read the market. 那很有用。但是當你去購物中心……價格是浮動的，你需要知道這樣的行情。

Gina說，Jason首先要去摸清情況，scout is spelled s-c-o-u-t, scout, scout，是蒐集信息的意思。有人曾告訴Jason, 可以找個便利商店，a convenience store, 看看飲料、牙膏等生活用品的價格，瞭解大概齊的價格標準。但是Gina說，到了購物中心，價格彈性就會變得很大，所以還是要學會read the market，弄懂市場行情。

scout v. 偵察，刺探；尋找；物色（人才等）