Sunday, July 26, 2009

Pu erh Humour




My friend who had returned from Beijing, gave me a gift of tea.  It was pu erh.  It was  loose raw pu erh which came packed in a modern airtight foil packaging.  It was the English translations that provided the humour.  (click 2nd pix for enlarged view)

The storage instructions for the tea was "Defend the tide and defend the strange smell".  

Wow, we puerh tea drinkers should be knighted as we have the additional tasks of being soldiers to defend the tide and smell.......well actually, the actual translations should be store the tea away from moisture and odours.  

Many Chinese in China do not yet have a good grasp of the English language (but the standard of English is improving).  As a result,  some direct translations may caused confusion and humour to the reader.  Likewise, we may be the subject of ridicule when we attempt to directly translate English to chinese.  You don't believe me....try translating "joystick" to chinese.  

To the Puerh tea drinker, please defend the tide and smell, but seriously.....all tea leaves must be properly stored, especially from moisture and odours. (more on storage of tea in my later blogs)



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As for my Puer, I think I'll "drink the method." I saw an herbal remedy in an Asian grocery recently that was called "Sliming Tea" instead of slimming. It was repeated all over the package. If only they knew what a weird faux pas... --Jason