德国人对所有事物都有一个词 - 可以非常专注，非常具体，因为它可以在精确的情况下构建。据说，他们甚至有一个词，因为当一个人看到别人在餐厅订购的美味菜时，经历了嫉妒的感觉，现在改变自己的订单为时已晚。 ，嫉妒，她认为这是一个单词 - 如果它根本存在。 ...很可能会继续前进，因为许多人一定会感到那种嫉妒，因为服务员携带别人的菜肴，华丽诱人，超越自己的桌子。
(The Germans had a word for everything-a word that could be very focused, very specific, because it could be constructed for a precise set of circumstances. They even had a word, it was said, for the feeling of envy experienced when one sees the tasty dishes ordered by others in a restaurant and it is too late to change one's own order. , meal envy, she believed that was the word-if it existed at all. ... could well catch on because many are bound to have felt that sort of envy as the waiter carries the dishes of others, gorgeously tantalising, past their own table....)
叙事突出了独特的德语通过词汇传达特定情绪和情况的能力。讨论的一个令人沮丧的例子是“嫉妒”的概念，当有人看到别人订购的美味佳肴时，它捕捉到了嫉妒的感觉，意识到修改自己的选择为时已晚。这个概念引起了许多人的共鸣，因为在附近观看令人垂涎的菜肴的情况是一种普遍的体验，充满了如此复杂的情绪。
作者亚历山大·麦考尔·史密斯（Alexander McCall Smith）强调了这种特定语言方面如何丰富我们对人类经历的理解。人们可能有一个合适的术语来感受到情感的想法为叙事增添了一层深度。它鼓励读者反思自己的“嫉妒”和类似的感觉，与享受餐点的试验建立联系，同时希望品尝其他东西。