Contrary to popular belief outside Japan, slurping ramen has nothing to do with paying your compliments to the chef, but there are some Japanese elders who do enjoy hearing a good slurp!
I'm British. And like most Western countries, we eat everything in complete silence here. But if I go to Japan and I eat ramen, I'm going to slurp it. Ramen is supposed to take less than 5 minutes to eat, so eating it in complete silence just isn't practical. And if any other foreigners (not necessarily Westerners - there's no slurping in Korea or Singapore either, for example) complain about me slurping ramen, I will calmly point out to them that that's how it's eaten in Japan, and will suggest that they should try it.
