和老外聊天的地道口語第77期:喝茶還是咖啡?

Zhao: in China at least, coffee is often associated with an exotic, well-to-do bourgeois lifestyle. Coffee is often considered a hobby of the well-educated, middle-class people.

Tony: maybe that's why some young chaps often spend a whole afternoon in a coffee bar, surfing the net or just typewriting something with laptop. While they are savoring a coffee at a leisured pace, they are actually showing off!

Z: yes. Behind a lifestyle, there is a culture. Young people easily become blind worshippers of a Westernized life. While they may not really life coffee, they think it desirable and enviable to be lavish with money in those high-consumption places.

T: then what about tea? We need to bear in mind in the first place that tea, rather than coffee, jas been the most popular drink for the Chinese people.

Z: well. Tea reprements another facet of popular culture. While a coffee bar is usually quiet and resonates with soft, elegant music, a teahouse is often a noisy, crowded, public space. People visit teahouses to associate with others, playing chess, chatting, or simply listening to operas.

T: what a pity that the traditional teahouses, as depicted Lao She, keep fading away so quickly in this metroplis. It is not easy to find an old-fashioned teahouse that suits the ordinary people's spending powerm either. Teahouses of today all feature a cozy, comfortable environment, and high-quality services, but can easily cost you a good deal—just like a coffee bar.

Z: well, that's true. In a sense, it is not so much what you drink that really counts, as where and how you drink.


在中國,說起咖啡,人們往往會想到異國情調,小資的優越生活方式.喝咖啡通常被認爲是有修養的中產階級的習慣.
也許,這便是有些年輕人動不動就花一整個下午泡在咖啡吧,擺開筆記本電腦,上上網,或者只是打打文件的原因吧.他們悠閒地品着咖啡,其實也是在炫耀自己.
嗯.生活方式背後就是文化.年輕人很容易就迷信西式生活.他們也一定喜歡咖啡,但堅信,在那些高消費場所花錢至少令人羨慕.
那你說喝茶怎麼樣?要知道,中國人最喜歡的飲料不是咖啡,而是茶.
嗯,茶大概是代表了大衆文化的另一個側面.咖啡吧是那種安靜,高雅,餘音繚繞的地方,茶館則往往是嘈雜,擁擠的公共空間.人們去茶館是想跟人說說話,下下棋,或者只是聽聽戲.
可惜啊,在北京這個大都市,老舍筆下那種傳統茶館正在迅速地銷聲匿跡.普通人去的起的那種老茶館再也難找到了.如今的茶館都是那種舒適,愜意的環境,還有高檔的服務,但是太貴了,跟咖啡廳幾乎不相上下.
這是實話,在某種意義上,重要的彷彿不再是喝什麼了,而是在哪兒喝,怎麼喝.


Exotic: from or in another country, especially a tropical one; seeming exciting and unusual because it is connected with foreign countries 來自異國(*尤指熱帶國家)的;奇異的;異國情調的;異國風味的
brightly-coloured exotic flowers/plants/birds
色彩鮮豔的異國花卉／植物／鳥兒
She travels to all kinds of exotic locations all over the world.
她走遍了全世界所有具有奇異風情的地方.

Bourgeois:小資的

Young caps:年輕人

Enviable: something that is enviable is the sort of thing that is good and that other people want to have too 令人羨慕的;引起忌妒的 adjective
He is in the enviable position of having two job offers to choose from.
他有兩份工作可選,真讓人羨慕.

Resonate: of a voice, an instrument, etc. 嗓音、樂器等 to make a deep, clear sound that continues for a long time 產生共鳴;發出迴響;迴盪
Her voice resonated through the theatre.
她的聲音在劇院裏迴盪.


Show off: to try to impress others by talking about your abilities, possessions, etc. 炫耀自己;賣弄自己

He's just showing off because that girl he likes is here.

他不過是在表現自己,因爲他喜歡的那個姑娘在場.

Bear in mind: 記住

Bear in mind that you'll have to practice economy.

記住要厲行節約.