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为什么亚洲人做什么都那么快？
WHY ASIANS DO EVERYTHING FAST
2023-11-16
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说到工作，很多亚洲人都是快速高效的。
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When it comes to work, a lot of Asians are fast and efficient. Sometimes scarily fast and efficient (when compared to others). It’s like a super power that some of us have.
说到工作，很多亚洲人都是快速高效的。有时速度快得吓人，效率也高得吓人(与别人相比)。就像我们有些人拥有的超能力。
I’m generally a fast worker. Some years ago I worked at a processing job: I stamped forms and divide them into batches of 100, which takes me around five minutes per batch. But that’s not as fast as my Asian colleague, and let’s call her Mandy. Watching Mandy grab a stack of papers, flick the papers up by their corners and count each one until the 100th one in a matter of twenty seconds is like watching a magic show.
我的工作速度通常也很快。几年前，我从事了一项批处理工作:我在表格上盖章，并将它们分成每批100份，我每完成一批大约需要5分钟。但这没有我的亚洲同事快，我们就叫她曼迪吧。看着曼迪拿起一叠纸，按着纸的角让它们弹起来，在20秒内就数到了第100张，就像在看魔术表演一样。
Maybe some of Asians do things fast because we want to be first, first to cross the finish line. Coming out on top and getting titles and rewards is admired in Asian cultures. When I was younger, my parents nagged at me to finish all my homework as soon as I got home from school so I could start the next set of questions in the maths revision books. I did that, because back then I naively thought keeping ahead of the pack made us truly happy.
亚洲人做事的速度很快也许是因为我们想成为第一，想第一个冲过终点线。在亚洲文化中，出人头地、获得头衔和奖励是令人钦佩的。当我还小的时候，我的父母总是唠叨着要我一放学回家就把作业做完，这样我就可以开始做数学课本上的下一组题了。我照做了，因为那时的我天真地认为，保持领先会让我们感到真正的快乐。
And so we do things fast and perhaps achieve as much as we can because of pride. It’s a “face thing” in Asian cultures to do this, do that.
我们做事的速度很快，也尽可能做得更多，也许是因为我们自身的骄傲。在亚洲文化中，会做这个，会做那个属于“面子问题”
Perhaps some of us Asians are fast workers because we want something to do and want to keep occupied. Maybe in the past we lived the rough moving-around-pinching-every-penny Asian life to make ends meet, didn’t have the chance to put our skills to use and so are eager to seize the next opportunity to be productive and better ourselves today.
一些亚洲人做事的速度很快，也是因为我们想要做点什么，想要保持忙碌。在过去，亚洲人过着艰苦的生活，四处奔波，精打细算，以维持生计，没有机会提升我们的技能，所以我们渴望抓住下一个机会，让现在的自己变得更有工作效率，更加完美。
Then again, maybe the reason some Asians work fast boils down to our hard work ethic – we know the value of working for what we want and it’s something we picked up as a kid.
话又说回来，亚洲人工作速度快的原因也许也是源于我们踏实肯干的职业道德——我们知道我们需要为自己想要的东西而努力工作，这是我们从小就学到的。
Sometimes work demands we work fast. If the paperwork doesn’t get put away as it comes in at my work, it piles up. Maybe Mandy is the sort who likes to get it out of the way, though we don’t have an exact deadline for this task.
有时一些工作本身就要求我们必须保持高效。比如这些纸张在我上班的时候没有被处理好，它们就会堆积如山。也许曼迪就是那种喜欢把事情快速解决掉的人，尽管我们对这项任务没有一个确切的截止日期。
Usually things go slower in the Western world: there’s more consulting than action compared to Asian workplaces.
通常情况下，与亚洲的工作效率相比，西方世界的事情进展缓慢:因为咨询多于行动。
And going slow is something I’ve come to like. The slower we go, the more we see what’s happening around us. The more we live in the moment. When we’re doing things fast, chances are we get tired easily. Feel stressed more.
但后来我发现我喜欢让节奏变得慢下来。我们走得越慢，我们就越能看到周围发生的事情，我们就越能享受当下。当我们快速做事时，我们很容易就会感到疲劳，也会感到压力越来越大。
I could be Mandy the Magician and make papers disappear like her. Once she called me “little whiz” when I counted about 500 papers in twenty minutes, so I’m sure I can if I push myself. But if I do, I don’t think I’ll have the energy to blog after work. Then again, I’ll get bored if I took my time – I like moving on with tasks, doing different tasks at work.
我可以成为魔术师曼迪，像她一样让需要处理的文件迅速减少。有一次，当我在20分钟内完成大约500张文件时，她叫我“小能手”，所以我相信如果我强迫自己，我一定能做到。但如果我这样做了，我想我下班后就没有精力写博客了。而且如果我长时间这样工作，我会感到无聊——我喜欢在工作中不断完成新的目标，做不同的任务。
Sometimes we can only work so fast. And work so slow. We all have our limits, and our good days and bad days.
而且有时候我们只能以很慢的速度工作。因为我们都有自己的极限，有状态好的时候，也有状态不好的时候。
Do you like to do things fast at work? Or do you take your time?
你喜欢在工作中快速做事吗?还是喜欢慢慢来?
wisemonkeysabroad
Very very provocative piece for us! One of us Asian and one of us not! The Mrs (Le) does things fast and efficiently – that’s just her style. The Mr (David) prefers to be slow and steady and is happy for things to all be that way! As it turns out, Le has learnt slow and steady is the much nicer way to go! And since then we both slow down in general, not to the point of unproductivity or laziness thought!
Along the Camino we saw plenty of snails which we saw as a reminder for us to ‘slow down’ so now when we see a shell or a snail, we take that as a gentle nudge from nature to tell us that there is no need to rush
The moments are all there to be enjoyed and appreciated! Look around and soak up what surrounds us
对我们来说，这是一篇非常能引起共鸣的文章!我们夫妻两个一个是亚洲人，一个不是!“乐太太”做事又快又有效率，这就是她的风格。而大卫先生喜欢慢慢来，稳扎稳打，他很喜欢这样做事!而事实证明，乐已经意识到了缓慢而稳定是更好的处事方式!从那时起，我们都放慢了做事的速度，但这并不代表没有效率或懒惰!在卡米诺附近，我们看到了很多的蜗牛，我们认为这是在提醒我们“慢下来”，所以现在当我们看到贝壳或蜗牛时，我们认为这是来自大自然的温柔提醒，告诉我们没有必要那么匆忙。所有的时刻都是值得享受和欣赏的!环顾四周，感受我们周围的一切！
Mabel Kwong
The two of you sound like chalk and cheese. What different personalities (though I’m sure the two of you have similarities!). Going slow and steady is certainly wise for long-distance hiking trail or travel. Not only will you conserve energy to last the distance, but you get to look around and look out for your physical safety too
That is so nice that you think of snails that way. Slow but always moving forward.
你们两个听起来在性格上简直是天壤之别(尽管我确信你们肯定有相似之处!)。对于旅行或长途跋涉来说，缓慢而稳定的行进无疑是明智的。你不仅可以保存体力来完成这段旅行，而且你还可以环顾四周，保证你的人身安全。你这么看待蜗牛真是太好了。缓慢但总是在前进。
Jean
Everyone has a different definition of “fast”. I have heard in HK, the city pace and I assume some workplaces would be “faster”.
But then again, I worked in Toronto for over 14 yrs., where I thought the city pace downtown was definitely more hyper compared to Vancouver or Calgary, both cities where I’ve lived and worked also.
However Toronto is “slower” in pacing than HK.
Somewhere someone must have done a sociological thesis/study on Asian culture workplaces in terms of speed, stress …How about the latter for a blog post?!
每个人对“快”都有不同的定义。我听说在香港，整个城市的节奏都很快，我认为一些工作场所还会“更快”。我在多伦多工作了14年多。我认为多伦多市中心的节奏肯定比温哥华和卡尔加里要快，我也在这两个城市生活和工作过。然而，多伦多的节奏还是比香港“慢”。一定有人做过关于亚洲工作场所的工作速度、工作压力的社会学论文/研究....以及创业倾向，你可以引用他们的结论来充实你的文章。
Mabel Kwong
So true. “Fast” and “slow” are a matter of perception. To someone, fast might mean doing a set of tasks in an hour. To someone else, fast might mean doing the same set of tasks in two hours.
I’ve always thought the pace of life in Toronto/Calgary is is similar to Melbourne…after all these cities have been consistently voted as the most livable cities in the world. Less stress, good work-life balance leads to a slower, less hectic life? Perhaps.
Our individual personalities plays a considerable part in the way we choose to do things, and usually depends on where and how we’ve been brought up.
你是对的。“快”和“慢”是一个感知问题。对某些人来说，快可能意味着在一小时内完成一系列任务。而对其他人来说，在两个小时内完成同样的任务可能已经意味着很快了。我一直以为多伦多/卡尔加里的生活节奏与墨尔本相似，毕竟这些城市一直被评为世界上最宜居的城市。舒缓压力，更好的平衡工作与生活会让你的生活变得更慢、更轻松吗？或许吧。我们的个性在我们选择做事的方式中起着相当大的作用，这通常取决于我们在哪里和如何长大。
Kan
I can see both points of view – the slower we go, the more we live in the moment and SEE what’s happening around us. But working fast and getting things done is challenging and exciting in it’s own way.
这两种观点我都能理解——我们走得越慢，我们就越能享受当下，越能看到我们周围发生的事情。但快速工作和完成任务本身就是一种挑战和令人兴奋的方式。
Mabel Kwong
Sometimes when I’m being “slow” and taking my time to do things, I find that my mind wanders. It could be because the pace is too slow for me or that I’m bored doing what I’m doing. I don’t know if this happens to you, I hope it doesn’t
When I’m doing something fast or am forced to do it within a very tight deadline, I usually find myself putting all my attention towards what I’m doing. Or maybe I’m just a bit OCD and that’s why I’m usually fast.
有时候，当我慢慢地花时间去做事情时，我发现我的思维会不集中。这可能是因为这个节奏对我来说太慢了，或者我对正在做的事情感到厌倦了。我不知道这是否会发生在你身上，我希望它不会。而当我快速地做某件事或被迫在很短的期限内完成它时，我通常会发现自己把所有的注意力都放在了我正在做的事情上。所以我通常做事都很快，也可能我只是有点强迫症。
Amanda
Wow this Mandy chick sounds pretty cool…
On a serious note, I am not sure if it is more a personality trait than an Asian thing? I was adopted into a Australian family when I was a baby and never had the so called pressures that you may hear of from the “stereotypical parents”….
哇，这个叫曼迪的家伙听起来很酷…公平地说，我不确定这是一种性格，还是属于亚洲人的一种特质?当我还是个婴儿的时候，我就被一个澳大利亚家庭收养了，从来没有感受到你从“刻板的父母”那里听到的那些所谓的压力....
Mabel Kwong
Definitely. This Mandy chick is cool and popular. Many comments below talk about her, like she’s “superhuman”.
What we choose to do and who we are might very well boil down to personality and how we are brought up. I’m sure a lot of Asians who have stereotypical parents have strong minds and would consider taking a break from hectic (work) lifestyles they lead..or consider taking conventional jobs.
那当然了。这个叫曼迪的家伙很酷很受欢迎。下面的许多评论都在谈论她，就好像她是个“超人”。我们选择如何做事，我们选择成为什么样的人，很可能取决于我们的个性和我们的成长方式。我相信很多有刻板的父母的亚洲人都有坚强的意志，但他们也会不时地从忙碌的(工作)中脱离出来休息一下，或者考虑从事更轻松的工作。
Jen
as a Chinese American that has lived in China for some time, I do notice that many Chinese emphasize doing many things quickly. From my experience, I noticed that even with day to day activities such as eating, parents tell their children to eat quickly. Even in the grocery lines people don’t really pause, this causes me to feel pressured to do things quickly as well. Growing up for me as well, I felt the pressure from my parents to do things quickly. So I do think that it is apart of at least Chinese culture to try to be as efficinet and quick as possible.
Btw I loved this post Mabel! It’s very relatable to myself. I grew up with parents that are always on the go, doing things, and rarely relaxing. I was influenced by this mentality, which has gotten me far in life. However, I do realize that it makes life much more stressful and less enjoyable. Thanks for the post Mabel!
作为一个在中国生活了一段时间的华裔美国人，我确实注意到许多中国人强调快速完成许多事情。从我的经验来看，我注意到即使是像吃饭这样的日常活动，父母也会告诉他们的孩子快点吃。即使在杂货店排队的时候，人们也会做一些能在排队时做的事情，这让我感到很有压力，不得不尽快完成任务。在我的成长过程中，我也感受到了来自父母的压力，他们总是要求我尽快把事情做完。所以我确实认为，尽可能高效和快速做事是中国文化的一部分。顺便说一句，我喜欢这个帖子，梅布尔!这对我来说很有意义。在我成长的过程中，父母总是在忙忙碌碌的做事，很少会放松一下。这种心态影响了我，让我在生活中能达到更高的高度。然而，我确实意识到这会让我更有压力，更不愉快。谢谢你的帖子，梅布尔!
Mabel Kwong
Those are some astute observations, Jen. Competition is commonly emphasised among many Chinese communities – not just working hard, but working hard to come out on tops. Self-improvement is always emphasised and if you aren’t moving on to the next thing, chances are you might be seen as unproductive. Sure, being quick might save time and we get to make the most of our time in terms of moving ahead, but there’s also much to learn taking the slower route.
Thank you for your kind words. Good to know by hustling you’ve gotten far and hope you’ve found ways to feel less stressed. Sometimes you don’t know what stress is until you stop and step away from what you’ve always done
你的观察很敏锐，珍。在许多华人社区中，人们通常都提倡竞争——不仅仅是努力工作，而是要通过努力工作来脱颖而出。人们总是强调自我提升，如果你不继续努力去做下一件事，你可能会被视为工作散漫。是的，快速做事可能会节省时间，我们需要在前进的道路上充分利用我们的时间，但是走慢点也能让我们在前进的道路上学到很多东西。谢谢你的夸奖。很高兴知道你通过忙碌的工作达到了更高的高度，希望你已经找到了减轻压力的方法。有时候你不知道该如何减轻压力，直到你停下来，从你一直在做的事情中脱离出来。
Constance
Actually, one of my husband’s good friends from university lives in Australia now – Sydney to be precise. He is Taiwanese but completed his masters degree in Australia and now lives there. When he returned to Taiwan for a visit earlier this year, we all went out to dinner. He told me that his manager, who is Australian, always says to him ‘Ken (not his real name), take it easy! Don’t work so hard! Don’t give yourself too much pressure.’ He told me his boss is extra nice to him and encourages him to work at the ‘Australian pace.’
Also, I feel that he and his wife are raising their children the ‘Australian way’ as well. They are quite young but he doesn’t put any pressure on them. He said that he wants them to be kids and enjoy their childhood.
事实上，我丈夫大学时的一个好朋友现在住在澳大利亚——准确地说是悉尼。他是台湾省人，但在澳大利亚完成了硕士学位，现在定居在了悉尼。今年早些时候他回台湾探亲时，我们一起出去吃了饭。他告诉我，他的澳大利亚经理总是对他说:“肯(不是他的真名)，放轻松!别这么拼命的工作!不要给自己太大的压力。”他告诉我，他的老板对他特别好，鼓励他按照“澳大利亚人的节奏”工作。此外，我觉得他和他的妻子也在用“澳大利亚人的方式”教育他们的孩子。他们的孩子还很小，他没有给他们施加任何的压力。他说他希望他们都能享受他们的童年。
Mabel Kwong
Thanks for sharing that story, Constance. The ‘Australian pace’ must be considerably laid-back compared to the work pace in Asian cities.
I notice that many white collar workers – not managers, just regular office staff – in Singapore and China consider it the norm to stay in the office well after the sun has gone down just to get a project done in a tight timefrx. So far of all the places I’ve worked in Melbourne (government, non-profit, education sectors), every one of my colleagues rushes out the door at 5pm or within the next half an hour. I don’t know if it’s that way where you work and if expats in Asia still adopt this laid-back mentality.
Ken sounds like a very nice guy. Hardworking breadwinner and always thinking of his family. Hope he does take it easy at work, and gets more time to spend with his kids
谢谢你分享这个故事，康斯坦斯。与亚洲城市的工作节奏相比，“澳大利亚节奏”一定相当悠闲。我注意到，在新加坡和中国，许多白领员工——不是经理，只是普通的办公室职员——认为在太阳下山后还呆在办公室里，只是为了在紧迫的时间内完成一个项目是一种常态。到目前为止，我在墨尔本工作过的所有地方(政府、非营利组织、教育部门)，我的每个同事都会在下午5点或接下来的半小时内冲出门。我不知道在你工作的地方是不是这样，也不知道在亚洲的外籍人士是否仍然会采用这种悠闲的工作方式。肯听起来是个不错的人，努力养家糊口，总是为他的家庭着想。希望他能在工作中放松下来，有更多的时间和孩子们在一起
Marta
I deeply admire Asian working ethics. Of course that being efficient doesn’t necessarily make you happy, but the faster you do your work, the sooner you can enjoy other things, right? Mandy appears to be superhuman, but you strike as a pretty efficient person too!
我非常钦佩亚洲人的职业道德。当然，高效率并不一定会让你快乐，但你工作得越快，你就能省下时间享受其他事情，不是吗？曼迪看起来像个超人，但你看起来也很有效率!
Mabel Kwong
Being efficient all the time doesn’t guarantee happiness. Not everyone can work fast and if you work fast, you might end up alienating others who are naturally “slow”.
But oh yes. The faster we finish work, the sooner we can have fun. Nah, Mandy is indeed superhuman. She works fast 9-5. Don’t know where she gets her energy
一直高效的工作并不能保证让你感到快乐。不是每个人都能工作得那么快，如果你工作得很快，你可能会和那些天生“做事慢”的人变得疏远。但是是的，我们越快完成工作，就越能省下时间开心的出去玩。曼迪确实是个超人，她每天都在朝九晚五地不间断的工作，不知道她的精力从何而来
原文地址：
说到工作，很多亚洲人都是快速高效的。有时速度快得吓人，效率也高得吓人(与别人相比)。就像我们有些人拥有的超能力。
I’m generally a fast worker. Some years ago I worked at a processing job: I stamped forms and divide them into batches of 100, which takes me around five minutes per batch. But that’s not as fast as my Asian colleague, and let’s call her Mandy. Watching Mandy grab a stack of papers, flick the papers up by their corners and count each one until the 100th one in a matter of twenty seconds is like watching a magic show.
我的工作速度通常也很快。几年前，我从事了一项批处理工作:我在表格上盖章，并将它们分成每批100份，我每完成一批大约需要5分钟。但这没有我的亚洲同事快，我们就叫她曼迪吧。看着曼迪拿起一叠纸，按着纸的角让它们弹起来，在20秒内就数到了第100张，就像在看魔术表演一样。
Maybe some of Asians do things fast because we want to be first, first to cross the finish line. Coming out on top and getting titles and rewards is admired in Asian cultures. When I was younger, my parents nagged at me to finish all my homework as soon as I got home from school so I could start the next set of questions in the maths revision books. I did that, because back then I naively thought keeping ahead of the pack made us truly happy.
亚洲人做事的速度很快也许是因为我们想成为第一，想第一个冲过终点线。在亚洲文化中，出人头地、获得头衔和奖励是令人钦佩的。当我还小的时候，我的父母总是唠叨着要我一放学回家就把作业做完，这样我就可以开始做数学课本上的下一组题了。我照做了，因为那时的我天真地认为，保持领先会让我们感到真正的快乐。
And so we do things fast and perhaps achieve as much as we can because of pride. It’s a “face thing” in Asian cultures to do this, do that.
我们做事的速度很快，也尽可能做得更多，也许是因为我们自身的骄傲。在亚洲文化中，会做这个，会做那个属于“面子问题”
Perhaps some of us Asians are fast workers because we want something to do and want to keep occupied. Maybe in the past we lived the rough moving-around-pinching-every-penny Asian life to make ends meet, didn’t have the chance to put our skills to use and so are eager to seize the next opportunity to be productive and better ourselves today.
一些亚洲人做事的速度很快，也是因为我们想要做点什么，想要保持忙碌。在过去，亚洲人过着艰苦的生活，四处奔波，精打细算，以维持生计，没有机会提升我们的技能，所以我们渴望抓住下一个机会，让现在的自己变得更有工作效率，更加完美。
Then again, maybe the reason some Asians work fast boils down to our hard work ethic – we know the value of working for what we want and it’s something we picked up as a kid.
话又说回来，亚洲人工作速度快的原因也许也是源于我们踏实肯干的职业道德——我们知道我们需要为自己想要的东西而努力工作，这是我们从小就学到的。
Sometimes work demands we work fast. If the paperwork doesn’t get put away as it comes in at my work, it piles up. Maybe Mandy is the sort who likes to get it out of the way, though we don’t have an exact deadline for this task.
有时一些工作本身就要求我们必须保持高效。比如这些纸张在我上班的时候没有被处理好，它们就会堆积如山。也许曼迪就是那种喜欢把事情快速解决掉的人，尽管我们对这项任务没有一个确切的截止日期。
Usually things go slower in the Western world: there’s more consulting than action compared to Asian workplaces.
通常情况下，与亚洲的工作效率相比，西方世界的事情进展缓慢:因为咨询多于行动。
And going slow is something I’ve come to like. The slower we go, the more we see what’s happening around us. The more we live in the moment. When we’re doing things fast, chances are we get tired easily. Feel stressed more.
但后来我发现我喜欢让节奏变得慢下来。我们走得越慢，我们就越能看到周围发生的事情，我们就越能享受当下。当我们快速做事时，我们很容易就会感到疲劳，也会感到压力越来越大。
I could be Mandy the Magician and make papers disappear like her. Once she called me “little whiz” when I counted about 500 papers in twenty minutes, so I’m sure I can if I push myself. But if I do, I don’t think I’ll have the energy to blog after work. Then again, I’ll get bored if I took my time – I like moving on with tasks, doing different tasks at work.
我可以成为魔术师曼迪，像她一样让需要处理的文件迅速减少。有一次，当我在20分钟内完成大约500张文件时，她叫我“小能手”，所以我相信如果我强迫自己，我一定能做到。但如果我这样做了，我想我下班后就没有精力写博客了。而且如果我长时间这样工作，我会感到无聊——我喜欢在工作中不断完成新的目标，做不同的任务。
Sometimes we can only work so fast. And work so slow. We all have our limits, and our good days and bad days.
而且有时候我们只能以很慢的速度工作。因为我们都有自己的极限，有状态好的时候，也有状态不好的时候。
Do you like to do things fast at work? Or do you take your time?
你喜欢在工作中快速做事吗?还是喜欢慢慢来?
wisemonkeysabroad
Very very provocative piece for us! One of us Asian and one of us not! The Mrs (Le) does things fast and efficiently – that’s just her style. The Mr (David) prefers to be slow and steady and is happy for things to all be that way! As it turns out, Le has learnt slow and steady is the much nicer way to go! And since then we both slow down in general, not to the point of unproductivity or laziness thought!
Along the Camino we saw plenty of snails which we saw as a reminder for us to ‘slow down’ so now when we see a shell or a snail, we take that as a gentle nudge from nature to tell us that there is no need to rush
The moments are all there to be enjoyed and appreciated! Look around and soak up what surrounds us
对我们来说，这是一篇非常能引起共鸣的文章!我们夫妻两个一个是亚洲人，一个不是!“乐太太”做事又快又有效率，这就是她的风格。而大卫先生喜欢慢慢来，稳扎稳打，他很喜欢这样做事!而事实证明，乐已经意识到了缓慢而稳定是更好的处事方式!从那时起，我们都放慢了做事的速度，但这并不代表没有效率或懒惰!在卡米诺附近，我们看到了很多的蜗牛，我们认为这是在提醒我们“慢下来”，所以现在当我们看到贝壳或蜗牛时，我们认为这是来自大自然的温柔提醒，告诉我们没有必要那么匆忙。所有的时刻都是值得享受和欣赏的!环顾四周，感受我们周围的一切！
Mabel Kwong
The two of you sound like chalk and cheese. What different personalities (though I’m sure the two of you have similarities!). Going slow and steady is certainly wise for long-distance hiking trail or travel. Not only will you conserve energy to last the distance, but you get to look around and look out for your physical safety too
That is so nice that you think of snails that way. Slow but always moving forward.
你们两个听起来在性格上简直是天壤之别(尽管我确信你们肯定有相似之处!)。对于旅行或长途跋涉来说，缓慢而稳定的行进无疑是明智的。你不仅可以保存体力来完成这段旅行，而且你还可以环顾四周，保证你的人身安全。你这么看待蜗牛真是太好了。缓慢但总是在前进。
Jean
Everyone has a different definition of “fast”. I have heard in HK, the city pace and I assume some workplaces would be “faster”.
But then again, I worked in Toronto for over 14 yrs., where I thought the city pace downtown was definitely more hyper compared to Vancouver or Calgary, both cities where I’ve lived and worked also.
However Toronto is “slower” in pacing than HK.
Somewhere someone must have done a sociological thesis/study on Asian culture workplaces in terms of speed, stress …How about the latter for a blog post?!
每个人对“快”都有不同的定义。我听说在香港，整个城市的节奏都很快，我认为一些工作场所还会“更快”。我在多伦多工作了14年多。我认为多伦多市中心的节奏肯定比温哥华和卡尔加里要快，我也在这两个城市生活和工作过。然而，多伦多的节奏还是比香港“慢”。一定有人做过关于亚洲工作场所的工作速度、工作压力的社会学论文/研究....以及创业倾向，你可以引用他们的结论来充实你的文章。
Mabel Kwong
So true. “Fast” and “slow” are a matter of perception. To someone, fast might mean doing a set of tasks in an hour. To someone else, fast might mean doing the same set of tasks in two hours.
I’ve always thought the pace of life in Toronto/Calgary is is similar to Melbourne…after all these cities have been consistently voted as the most livable cities in the world. Less stress, good work-life balance leads to a slower, less hectic life? Perhaps.
Our individual personalities plays a considerable part in the way we choose to do things, and usually depends on where and how we’ve been brought up.
你是对的。“快”和“慢”是一个感知问题。对某些人来说，快可能意味着在一小时内完成一系列任务。而对其他人来说，在两个小时内完成同样的任务可能已经意味着很快了。我一直以为多伦多/卡尔加里的生活节奏与墨尔本相似，毕竟这些城市一直被评为世界上最宜居的城市。舒缓压力，更好的平衡工作与生活会让你的生活变得更慢、更轻松吗？或许吧。我们的个性在我们选择做事的方式中起着相当大的作用，这通常取决于我们在哪里和如何长大。
Kan
I can see both points of view – the slower we go, the more we live in the moment and SEE what’s happening around us. But working fast and getting things done is challenging and exciting in it’s own way.
这两种观点我都能理解——我们走得越慢，我们就越能享受当下，越能看到我们周围发生的事情。但快速工作和完成任务本身就是一种挑战和令人兴奋的方式。
Mabel Kwong
Sometimes when I’m being “slow” and taking my time to do things, I find that my mind wanders. It could be because the pace is too slow for me or that I’m bored doing what I’m doing. I don’t know if this happens to you, I hope it doesn’t
When I’m doing something fast or am forced to do it within a very tight deadline, I usually find myself putting all my attention towards what I’m doing. Or maybe I’m just a bit OCD and that’s why I’m usually fast.
有时候，当我慢慢地花时间去做事情时，我发现我的思维会不集中。这可能是因为这个节奏对我来说太慢了，或者我对正在做的事情感到厌倦了。我不知道这是否会发生在你身上，我希望它不会。而当我快速地做某件事或被迫在很短的期限内完成它时，我通常会发现自己把所有的注意力都放在了我正在做的事情上。所以我通常做事都很快，也可能我只是有点强迫症。
Amanda
Wow this Mandy chick sounds pretty cool…
On a serious note, I am not sure if it is more a personality trait than an Asian thing? I was adopted into a Australian family when I was a baby and never had the so called pressures that you may hear of from the “stereotypical parents”….
哇，这个叫曼迪的家伙听起来很酷…公平地说，我不确定这是一种性格，还是属于亚洲人的一种特质?当我还是个婴儿的时候，我就被一个澳大利亚家庭收养了，从来没有感受到你从“刻板的父母”那里听到的那些所谓的压力....
Mabel Kwong
Definitely. This Mandy chick is cool and popular. Many comments below talk about her, like she’s “superhuman”.
What we choose to do and who we are might very well boil down to personality and how we are brought up. I’m sure a lot of Asians who have stereotypical parents have strong minds and would consider taking a break from hectic (work) lifestyles they lead..or consider taking conventional jobs.
那当然了。这个叫曼迪的家伙很酷很受欢迎。下面的许多评论都在谈论她，就好像她是个“超人”。我们选择如何做事，我们选择成为什么样的人，很可能取决于我们的个性和我们的成长方式。我相信很多有刻板的父母的亚洲人都有坚强的意志，但他们也会不时地从忙碌的(工作)中脱离出来休息一下，或者考虑从事更轻松的工作。
Jen
as a Chinese American that has lived in China for some time, I do notice that many Chinese emphasize doing many things quickly. From my experience, I noticed that even with day to day activities such as eating, parents tell their children to eat quickly. Even in the grocery lines people don’t really pause, this causes me to feel pressured to do things quickly as well. Growing up for me as well, I felt the pressure from my parents to do things quickly. So I do think that it is apart of at least Chinese culture to try to be as efficinet and quick as possible.
Btw I loved this post Mabel! It’s very relatable to myself. I grew up with parents that are always on the go, doing things, and rarely relaxing. I was influenced by this mentality, which has gotten me far in life. However, I do realize that it makes life much more stressful and less enjoyable. Thanks for the post Mabel!
作为一个在中国生活了一段时间的华裔美国人，我确实注意到许多中国人强调快速完成许多事情。从我的经验来看，我注意到即使是像吃饭这样的日常活动，父母也会告诉他们的孩子快点吃。即使在杂货店排队的时候，人们也会做一些能在排队时做的事情，这让我感到很有压力，不得不尽快完成任务。在我的成长过程中，我也感受到了来自父母的压力，他们总是要求我尽快把事情做完。所以我确实认为，尽可能高效和快速做事是中国文化的一部分。顺便说一句，我喜欢这个帖子，梅布尔!这对我来说很有意义。在我成长的过程中，父母总是在忙忙碌碌的做事，很少会放松一下。这种心态影响了我，让我在生活中能达到更高的高度。然而，我确实意识到这会让我更有压力，更不愉快。谢谢你的帖子，梅布尔!
Mabel Kwong
Those are some astute observations, Jen. Competition is commonly emphasised among many Chinese communities – not just working hard, but working hard to come out on tops. Self-improvement is always emphasised and if you aren’t moving on to the next thing, chances are you might be seen as unproductive. Sure, being quick might save time and we get to make the most of our time in terms of moving ahead, but there’s also much to learn taking the slower route.
Thank you for your kind words. Good to know by hustling you’ve gotten far and hope you’ve found ways to feel less stressed. Sometimes you don’t know what stress is until you stop and step away from what you’ve always done
你的观察很敏锐，珍。在许多华人社区中，人们通常都提倡竞争——不仅仅是努力工作，而是要通过努力工作来脱颖而出。人们总是强调自我提升，如果你不继续努力去做下一件事，你可能会被视为工作散漫。是的，快速做事可能会节省时间，我们需要在前进的道路上充分利用我们的时间，但是走慢点也能让我们在前进的道路上学到很多东西。谢谢你的夸奖。很高兴知道你通过忙碌的工作达到了更高的高度，希望你已经找到了减轻压力的方法。有时候你不知道该如何减轻压力，直到你停下来，从你一直在做的事情中脱离出来。
Constance
Actually, one of my husband’s good friends from university lives in Australia now – Sydney to be precise. He is Taiwanese but completed his masters degree in Australia and now lives there. When he returned to Taiwan for a visit earlier this year, we all went out to dinner. He told me that his manager, who is Australian, always says to him ‘Ken (not his real name), take it easy! Don’t work so hard! Don’t give yourself too much pressure.’ He told me his boss is extra nice to him and encourages him to work at the ‘Australian pace.’
Also, I feel that he and his wife are raising their children the ‘Australian way’ as well. They are quite young but he doesn’t put any pressure on them. He said that he wants them to be kids and enjoy their childhood.
事实上，我丈夫大学时的一个好朋友现在住在澳大利亚——准确地说是悉尼。他是台湾省人，但在澳大利亚完成了硕士学位，现在定居在了悉尼。今年早些时候他回台湾探亲时，我们一起出去吃了饭。他告诉我，他的澳大利亚经理总是对他说:“肯(不是他的真名)，放轻松!别这么拼命的工作!不要给自己太大的压力。”他告诉我，他的老板对他特别好，鼓励他按照“澳大利亚人的节奏”工作。此外，我觉得他和他的妻子也在用“澳大利亚人的方式”教育他们的孩子。他们的孩子还很小，他没有给他们施加任何的压力。他说他希望他们都能享受他们的童年。
Mabel Kwong
Thanks for sharing that story, Constance. The ‘Australian pace’ must be considerably laid-back compared to the work pace in Asian cities.
I notice that many white collar workers – not managers, just regular office staff – in Singapore and China consider it the norm to stay in the office well after the sun has gone down just to get a project done in a tight timefrx. So far of all the places I’ve worked in Melbourne (government, non-profit, education sectors), every one of my colleagues rushes out the door at 5pm or within the next half an hour. I don’t know if it’s that way where you work and if expats in Asia still adopt this laid-back mentality.
Ken sounds like a very nice guy. Hardworking breadwinner and always thinking of his family. Hope he does take it easy at work, and gets more time to spend with his kids
谢谢你分享这个故事，康斯坦斯。与亚洲城市的工作节奏相比，“澳大利亚节奏”一定相当悠闲。我注意到，在新加坡和中国，许多白领员工——不是经理，只是普通的办公室职员——认为在太阳下山后还呆在办公室里，只是为了在紧迫的时间内完成一个项目是一种常态。到目前为止，我在墨尔本工作过的所有地方(政府、非营利组织、教育部门)，我的每个同事都会在下午5点或接下来的半小时内冲出门。我不知道在你工作的地方是不是这样，也不知道在亚洲的外籍人士是否仍然会采用这种悠闲的工作方式。肯听起来是个不错的人，努力养家糊口，总是为他的家庭着想。希望他能在工作中放松下来，有更多的时间和孩子们在一起
Marta
I deeply admire Asian working ethics. Of course that being efficient doesn’t necessarily make you happy, but the faster you do your work, the sooner you can enjoy other things, right? Mandy appears to be superhuman, but you strike as a pretty efficient person too!
我非常钦佩亚洲人的职业道德。当然，高效率并不一定会让你快乐，但你工作得越快，你就能省下时间享受其他事情，不是吗？曼迪看起来像个超人，但你看起来也很有效率!
Mabel Kwong
Being efficient all the time doesn’t guarantee happiness. Not everyone can work fast and if you work fast, you might end up alienating others who are naturally “slow”.
But oh yes. The faster we finish work, the sooner we can have fun. Nah, Mandy is indeed superhuman. She works fast 9-5. Don’t know where she gets her energy
一直高效的工作并不能保证让你感到快乐。不是每个人都能工作得那么快，如果你工作得很快，你可能会和那些天生“做事慢”的人变得疏远。但是是的，我们越快完成工作，就越能省下时间开心的出去玩。曼迪确实是个超人，她每天都在朝九晚五地不间断的工作，不知道她的精力从何而来
