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Essay: 学切菜 – Learning to Cut Vegetables

In this wax-on, wax-off lesson, our narrator picks up the most important basic skill in Chinese cooking.

In this wax-on, wax-off lesson, our narrator picks up the most important basic skill in Chinese cooking.

Key vocab

学做菜 – xué zuò cài – to learn to cook
失望 – shī wàng – disappointed
切菜 – qiē cài – to cut vegetables
练习 – liàn xí – to practice
一样大 – yí yàng dà – the same size
疼 – téng – to hurt; painful
慢慢 – màn màn – slowly; gradually
点点头 – diǎn diǎn tóu – to nod one’s head
那一刻 – nà yí kè – at that moment
不容易 – bù róng yì – not easy

学切菜

去年，我来到中国学做菜。我一直很喜欢中国菜，所以我很高兴。

第一天，老师没有让我们做菜。他给了我们每个人一把刀和很多菜，然后说：”今天，你们只学一件事——切菜。”

我有点失望。切菜？我以前在家也切过菜，这有什么难的？

但是我错了。老师切菜的时候，又快又好，每一块都一样大。我切的呢？大的大，小的小，还很慢。老师看了看我切的菜，笑着说：”你要多练习。”

从那天开始，我每天都在切菜。切土豆，切菜，切肉。我的手一开始很疼，后来慢慢好了。

一个月以后，我再看自己切的菜，每一块都差不多一样大了。老师走过来，看了看，点点头说：”好，现在你可以开始学做菜了。”

那一刻，我特别高兴。原来，做好一件小事，也不容易。

Show English translation

Learning to Cut Vegetables

Last year, I came to China to learn how to cook. I have always loved Chinese food, so I was very happy.

On the first day, the teacher didn’t let us cook. He gave each of us a knife and a lot of vegetables, then said: ‘Today, you will only learn one thing—how to cut vegetables.’

I was a little disappointed. Cutting vegetables? I had cut vegetables at home before, what’s so hard about that?

But I was wrong. When the teacher cut vegetables, he was both fast and skilled, and every piece was the same size. And mine? The big ones were big, the small ones were small, and I was very slow. The teacher looked at the vegetables I had cut, smiled, and said: ‘You need to practice more.’

From that day on, I cut vegetables every day. Cutting potatoes, cutting vegetables, cutting meat. At first my hand hurt a lot, but later it slowly got better.

A month later, when I looked again at the vegetables I had cut, every piece was almost the same size. The teacher walked over, took a look, nodded and said: ‘Good, now you can start learning to cook.’

At that moment, I was especially happy. It turns out that doing a small thing well isn’t easy either.

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