It was my first week in Kansas City, the USA. My friend, Sharon, asked me whether I'd like to try McDonald's for a quick lunch. So, we went. American fast food is quite popular in China, so I could1 pick something that I used to have in Beijing-a super burger, a coke and French fries, though the names of the food were in English.2, the burger was much bigger than what I had back home. I thought to myself, after all, most Americans are bigger than Chinese. They must need more for lunch.
With my lunch set in front of me, I wanted some tomato sauce to3my French fries, so I went to the waiter and asked him for some tomato sauce.
"What?" he looked puzzled. "Tomato sauce?"
I started to feel uncertain. I had studied English for six years. He should be able to understand me without any problems. Maybe, it was not called "tomato sauce" here, I4.
"I'm not sure what you call that thing," I tried again, "but it's American food, and you put tomato sauce on everything."
"Sorry, Miss," he said, shaking his head, "but we don't have tomato sauce here. Never have."
I walked back to Sharon and asked her the question. She smiled and asked me to wait for a moment. A few minutes later, she came back with several packages that I had asked for. So, they never used the5 packages for the tomato sauce. Oh, no, it's written right there, "Ketchup".
"What's the difference between Ketch-up and the tomato sauce?" I asked.
"I don't know6we call it this name," replied Sharon. "Never thought about it."
Sharon's smile suddenly made me realize that the difference between Ketch-up and the tomato sauce lay not so much in the food itself as in our different cultures.
