钓鱼台往事（二）机会总是青睐有准备的人

作者简介 

鲁秋莲 钓鱼台国宾馆大连山庄总经理，1974年至2015年在钓鱼台国宾馆工作至退休，先后在钓鱼台国宾馆总统楼从事服务接待工作，在国宾馆业务部担任楼经理；在当时局长朱贵玉的要求和指导下，查找、收集、整理、存档自国宾馆建馆以来接待国宾的档案；钓鱼台大酒店担任办公室主任等职。

通过成人高考，进入外交学院夜大学英语专业学习，先后被国宾馆选派去参加瑞士饭店集团在北京港澳中心举行的饭店管理培训、德国大西洋饭店学习饭店管理、美国杨伯翰大学夏威夷分校学习饭店行政管理。

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1996年，我梦想成真，被外交学院夜大英语专业录取。之后，在家人的支持下，我白天上班，晚上上学，直到毕业。期间，尽管很辛苦，但为了实现自己的目标，我从来没有因为困难而犹豫徘徊，逡巡不前，而是我下定决心，坚持学习，持之以恒，风雨无阻，不曾放弃。

有这样一幕印象极深，至今历历在目。那是一个及其寒冷的冬夜，下课后，我和同学们走出暖和的教学大楼时，一股寒气袭面而来，一看，外面悄无声息地正下着像南方毛毛雨那样的细雪，在路灯的照耀下闪着银光。彼时我进教室时干爽的路面，此时变成了如同冰场一样的湿滑，甚至比溜冰场还难行走。因为当时气温很低，落到地面的雪又很快结成了冰，冰层上又在不断叠加雪。因此，那天从第二外国语学院的校园到家七公里的路程，我不得不非常谨慎开车，慢速行驶，时不时轻点刹车，以保持与前车的安全距离，一路都在起步档和二档之间更换，平日仅仅需要10分钟以内的时间，那天用了将近40分钟。

回顾那段求学的过程，我感觉，所有的艰难困苦，值得！因为，最终我从夜大毕业了。

外交学院夜大99届毕业生合影

英语学习的成果，助我得心应手圆满完成一个又一个任务。因为没有语言障碍，我在外事服务接待中顺风顺水。比如，当我能流畅和宾客沟通、满足他们的需求时，他们赞美我，感谢我；当我满足菲律宾总统小女儿的需求，及时给她捧上她特别喜欢吃的草莓时，她欢欣跳跃，连声说“非常感谢”。

写到这儿，突然，我脑海中飘出一件与这个小女孩有关的事。几天前看新闻，当年这个管我要草莓吃的小女孩，她的老哥，继他当年的总统父亲之后，当上了菲律宾现任总统。我想，如今的她，会不会在他哥哥的班底中担任要职呢？

再比如，针对旅游客人的需求是品尝当地美食、游览名胜古迹、领略当地风光的特点，国宾馆精心准备了特色欢迎宴——全素席，款待旅游团队宾客。对吃西餐的美国人来说，品尝全素宴，对他们是一种全新的体验，也是他们下榻国宾馆的一个亮点，他们非常感兴趣。当我用英文向他们介绍全素宴和吃素的好处时，赢得了客人的嘉许，获得了客人一次又一次赞扬声和雷鸣般的掌声。

有一次，当我说“常吃素食可以使人健康，苗条”时，话音未落，我听见团队中有个客人大声而饶有兴趣地喝彩说："Look，she is a vegetarian."（“看，她是个素食者。”) 接着，她周围的人随声迎合，现场的人群中爆发出一阵开心的笑声。

国宾馆为什么会接待旅游观光团呢？这与国宾馆当时“搞活经济，减轻国家负担“的工作方针有关，也是在国家实行对外开放政策下的一种新尝试。

当时，国宾馆除了接待国家元首、政府代表团，第一次实行适度向高级旅游观光团队开放的做法，接待来自美国的高级旅游观光团。因此，国宾馆领导召开了特别会议，研究如何针对旅游客人的特点，接待好旅游团队的事宜，其中包括组建了接待旅游团队的班子。

因为每个40余人的旅游团队中，只有一个全程陪同和一个地方陪同，所以相对接待政府代表团而言，接待旅游客人的英语要求较高。因为我的英语好，被调到了旅游接待楼。参加工作时，我就被分配在总统楼，在那里连续工作8年之后，我第一次被调换到了接待旅游团客人的楼宇。 

能够用英语流畅和外宾交流，不但给客人带来了生活的方便和满足，让客人有宾至如归之感，也增加了自己在工作中的乐趣。在这方面，有许多令人愉悦的美好记忆，在此枚举一列。

前南斯拉夫总统铁托（前排穿西装者）

有一天，我正在服务平易近人、智慧而诙谐的前南斯拉夫总统铁托用餐，他面带微笑地问我：“你喜爱南斯拉夫小伙子吗？”

一到国宾馆，单位就对新来的员工进行了培训，遵守外事纪律是其中之一。上岗后，我的顶头上司，或者在接待外宾的吹风会中，经常说的一句话是“外交场合授权有限”。因此，由于职业的要求，我除了满足外宾的日常生活之需，当他们和我谈到别的内容时，我总是会很小心，唯恐出错。所以，我谨慎回答铁托总统：“我喜爱南斯拉夫人民。”听我这样回答，铁托总统妙趣横生，半眯着眼睛，略有所思状，又来了一句“南斯拉夫人民不包括南斯拉夫小伙子吗？”我俩都异口同声笑了起来。

学习班结束时，我和公关部的两名经理与来自瑞士饭店集团的培训老师合影留念。

正如人们说的“机会总是青睐有准备的人”，因为我具备良好的英语交际能力，在工作中表现突出，获得了工作单位领导的认可和褒奖。

学习证书

因此，我得到了一个又一个提升自己才干的机会。比如，因为懂英语的优势，1991年我和另外几名同行一起，被选派去德国汉堡大西洋饭店学习饭店管理；1996年，我和公关部的两名经理一起，被选派参加瑞士饭店集团在北京港澳中心举行的饭店管理培训；后来，我参加了英语托福考试；2003年，和销售部的一名经理一起作为访问学者，被送去美国杨伯翰大学夏威夷分校（简称：BYU-Hawaii）学习饭店行政管理。

在大西洋饭店学习结束后，我们的学习团队与大西洋饭店总经理、中国驻汉堡总领事合影留念。

从我在工作中自学英语、在国内上夜大，到国外学习饭店管理，这些经历，成为我职业生涯的亮点和人生美好而回味无穷的记忆。于我而言，他们不但在于通过学习获得知识的本身，更在于让我扩展了视野，升华了心灵境界，开阔了思维方式，拓宽了对人生意义的认识。

附 | 上下滑动阅览译文

In 1996, my dream came true and I was admitted to the Evening College English major of Foreign Affairs College.  After that, with the support of my family, I worked during the day and went to school at night until I graduated from the college. During that period, despite the hard work, in order to achieve my goal, I never hesitated to move forward because of difficulties. Instead, I made up my mind to keep learning and persisted, relentless, rain or shine, and never gave up.

There was such a scene that was deep impressive still vividly in my memory. It was an extremely cold winter night. After class, when my classmates and I came out of the warm teaching building, a cold air hit our face. We could see that there was a quiet snow like a drizzle in the south outside, shining silver in the light of the street lamp. When I entered the classroom, the road was dry. When I left the classroom, it was as slippery as an ice rink, even harder to walk than an ice rink. For it was very cold, and the snow that fell to the ground quickly turned into ice, and snow was piled on top of the ice. Therefore, on the seven-kilometer journey home from the campus that night, I had to drive very carefully, driving slowly and braking lightly every now and then to maintain a safe distance from the car in front of me, and changing between start gear and second gear all the way, which normally takes less than 10 minutes, but took nearly 40 minutes that night.

Looking back on that period of experience of studying, I feel that all the hardships were worth it! Because, finally, I graduated from night college. 

The attainment of English learning made me available to complete each task with ease. Because there was no language barrier, I had a good time in the foreign service reception. For example, when I could communicate fluently with guests and meet their needs, they praised and appreciated me; when I fulfilled the Philippine president's youngest daughter's request and brought her favorite strawberries in time, she jumped for joy, said “thank you，thank you so much"  repeatedly.

As I wrote this, suddenly, something about the little girl came up my mind. A few days ago, I got the news that the little girl who asked me to eat strawberries, her elder brother, after his president father, became the current president of the Philippines, now she, I wonder, will be in his brother's team on a high position? 

For another example, considering the needs of tourists were to taste the local cuisine, visit the historic sites and the local scenery, the State Guesthouse carefully prepared a special welcome banquet - all vegetarian dishes, to treat the guests of the travel groups from America.  For American people who eat Western food, a whole-vegetarian-feast was a new experience and a highlight of their stay at the State Guesthouse, which they were very interested in. When I enlarged on/expanded upon/introduced vegetarian dishes and the benefits of vegetarian eating to them in English, my introduction would never ever fail to gain the approval of guests, greeted with an avalanche of praise, and a storm/round of applause from the guests present. Once, when I said, "A vegetarian diet can make people slim and lean," as I spoke, I heard one of the guests in the group, with great fun, acclaimed loudly, "look, she is a vegetarian." Then, as those around her followed suit, the crowd on the spot burst out a gust of happy laughter.

Why did the state guesthouse receive tourist groups?  That’s related to the working policy of the State Guesthouse to invigorate the economy and reduce the burden of the state, and it was also a new attempt under the country's policy of opening to the outside world. 

At that time, in addition to receiving chiefs of states and government delegations, for the first time, the State Guesthouse moderately opened to advanced sightseeing tour groups from the United States. Therefore, the leadership of the State Guesthouse held an extraordinary meeting to study how to receive the sight-seeing tour teams according to the characteristics of the guests, including the formation of the reception of tourism team.

Because each tour group of more than 40 people had only one full tour guide and one local guide, English requirements for service and reception of tourist guests were higher than those for reception of government delegations.  Because of my good English, I was transferred to the tourist reception villa. When I started my career, I was assigned to the presidential villa. After working there for eight years constantly, I was transposed to the villa for receiving tour groups for the first time.    

Being able to communicate with foreign guests fluently in English, not only brought convenience and satisfaction to the guests, made them feel at home, but also increased/gained the enjoyment in my work.  There were many, many delightful and sweet memories in this regard, for instance, in this case.  

One day, while I was serving  the wise and approachable president of the former Yugoslavia, he asked me with smile:  "Do you love Yugoslav boys?" Upon arriving at the State Guesthouse, the unit trained the new staff, one of which was to observe the foreign affairs discipline.  After taking up the post, my supervisor, and in the briefings for receiving foreign guests often said that diplomatic occasions were limited in authorization. Therefore, due to the requirements of my work, I was always very cautious when foreign guests talked to me about anything other than their daily needs, lest I should make mistakes.

As a result, I gave President Tito a guarded answer, "I love the Yugoslav people." Hearing my reply, the president, dripped with witty and humor, half narrowed his eyes and a little thoughtful, with smile, added, "Yugoslav people don't include Yugoslav boys?"  Oh, oh, we both laughed in unison.

As people say, "opportunities always favor those who are prepared." Because I had good English communication ability and performed well in my work, I gained approval and praise by the leaders of my work unit.  As a result, I had been given one opportunity after another to develop my capabilities and talents. For example, because of the advantage/ strong points of knowing English, in 1991, along with several other colleagues, I was sent to the Atlantic Hotel, Hamburg, Germany to learn hotel management. in 1996, together with two managers from the Public Relation Department, I was selected to attend/joined the Hotel Management Training in Beijing Hong Kong and Macao Center held by Swiss-Hotel Group. Later, I participated in the TOEFL test and in 2003, with a manager of the Sales Department, as a visiting scholar, I was sent to the United States to study Hospitality Executive Management at Brigham Young University, Hawaii, which be shortened to BYU-Hawaii.

From the time I taught myself English on my job, attending college to study English at night at home, and learning hotel management abroad, these experiences had become the highlights of my vocation, and also, they are wonderful memories of my life. For me, they are not only about the acquisition of knowledge itself through learning, but also enabled me to expand my vision, sublimated the realm of my mind, broaden the way of thinking, and widen the understanding of the meaning of life.  

- 未完待续 -

作者 | 鲁秋莲

图片 | 鲁秋莲、网络

编辑 | 外交官说事儿 青岩

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