好好说话

字幕原文

My grandmother had a saying: 我奶奶常说一句话：

"It costs nothing to be kind, so why be anything else?" “对人友善又不用花一分钱，何必去为难别人呢？”

I didn't really understand it as a kid. 小时候我其实并不太懂。

Then one day I watched her calm a furious customer at a shop counter — 直到有一天，我在店里的柜台前，亲眼看见她安抚了一位怒气冲冲的顾客——

not by arguing back, but by speaking softly and warmly, 她没有跟对方据理力争，而是轻声细语、充满关切地跟人家说话，

until the man's anger simply melted away. 直到那人的火气彻底消了下去。

He left apologizing. 走的时候他反倒一直在道歉。

"People are usually fighting something you can't see," she told me afterward. 事后她对我说：“大家平时往往都在承受着你看不见的难处，”

"A gentle word gives them a way to put their fists down." “一句温和的话，能给他们一个把拳头放下的台阶。”

I've tested it my whole life since, and she was right. 从那以后，我用这招试了一辈子，发现她说得一点没错。

Snap at someone and they snap back, and the whole thing escalates. 你冲别人没好气，别人也会冲你发火，事情就会越闹越大。

But answer sharpness with a calm, kind voice, 但若是面对恶语相向，你能用平静温和的语气回应，

and more often than not, it disarms them. 十有八九就能卸下对方的防备。

A soft word really can change the temperature of a whole room — 一句温和的话，真的能改变整个屋子的气氛——

and sometimes someone's whole day. 有时候，甚至能改变一个人的一整天。