Why it's worth learning Chinese

Sometimes, googling around to figure out a term I'm adding to the Babelcarp database, I come across a website that shows how deep in tea knowledge the Chinese Web is. Somehow this page shocked me when I considered the odds of finding any of this knowledge in English:

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/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin
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Uhh.. that's in some weird scratch-like language.

Reply to
Twug Storn

I think the scratches come from your browser lacking East Asian character support. But I think you can see from the English on that page that the technical level is pretty high, which was my point.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Hey, I don't know about *YOU* but I certainly brew my tea by the A.I. fuzzy logic algorithm string theory quantum pattern recognition method, even my finest Red Rose! Sheesh, savages. I won't even *brew* tea if it doesn't pass the Turing Test.

- Dominic

/honestly I couldn't even fathom brewing tea via some pattern recognition method... I think it would become much less relaxing and calming if I did. I deal with patterns constantly in my daily life, I sure don't need more with my tea.

Reply to
Dominic T.

Wow, you're pretty demanding when it comes to tea. I find myself reading lots of Usenet posts that fail the TT. Not yours, I hasten to add...

I think they're talking about *manufacturing* tea, not brewing it.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Tell me about your lots of Usenet posts that fail the TT

Reply to
Twug Storn

I'm tempted to say that your response reminds me of Eliza:

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But, honestly, I do think you're a human. When I wrote about Usenet posts that failed the Turing test, I was actually thinking of spam.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Maybe it is because of my mother.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Oh, right! And please forgive me, Twug - it didn't occur to me you not only knew what Eliza was, you were channeling it^H^Hher.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

You know, I actually download and read some of these studies from time to time. If you're into tea cultivation, then yeah, it's useful to know Chinese. But for ordinary tea drinkers, this kind of info isn't really useful to tell you anything. There are all kinds of tea studies like this going on all the time. And tea culture is evolving in China, and I would hope, improving. Tea business practices and all that are changing.

But reading studies on tea cultivation techniques isn't going to tell you anything about the tea you're drinking now. Still, it is a very deep field, and a very interesting one too.

Reply to
niisonge

I could be misreading you, but you seem to be saying that the way tea is grown has nothing to do with what's in the cup. That's a very strong statement, and not one I agree with.

(Or are you saying that when you buy tea leaves there's no way to know how they were grown?)

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

I'm saying the science of tea has little to do with how we enjoy tea. Partly because we will never get to drink tea from experimental crop X or experimental crop Y - unless we were to visit the tea research center and taste it ourselves. And also because you can't taste the science in tea - and you don't know whether experiment a or experiment b was beneficial in producing the tea we drink today.

Of course, there's a lot of cool tea science going on right now - to develop low-level fluoride strains of tea bushes or trees. And that's actually good to help prevent tea-induced fluorosis - which is quite common in Inner Mongolia and other regions.

And while the general result of tea science is to produce better tea - that's mainly why we buy tea anyway - because it's good. But we don't know whether it's because of some specific scientific variable or intervention or whether it's a product of the environment - soils, climate, etc; or how much it's due to the skill of the tea producers in crafting their tea. And somehow, it seems in spite of science, some really bad teas are the result. I have been to tea research stations - trying to grow Anxi teas and Taiwan teas outside of the normal growing range - but the result was always inferior product. Sometimes the right environment is exactly what you need - the soils, climate, etc. But on the other hand, yesterday, I was talking to some people and they said Fuding is becoming quite the hotbed for new teas. They said Fuding is now making a Longjing that is better than Xihu Longjing - and they're even passing it off as authentic Xihu Longjing. But no proof to back up that claim - though it seems believable. I should go to Fuding sometime and check it out.

Lately, there has been a lot of rainy weather in Fujian, so this year's Autumn Tieguanyin isn't very good. Nobody is happy.

Reply to
niisonge

You're right: I don't know. But I'd like to know a lot more. Look, science affects most aspects of our lives. The arguments you're making apply equally well to medicine.

But that doesn't mean it's *impossible* to know. And I, for one, would like to know.

Right. I've been to a South Indian tea research institute where smart and dedicated scientists try to do everything they can to increase the yield in a way that's sustainable in terms of the land and the workers. But quality isn't on their agenda.

I'd love to hear what you find out.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

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