The manager offers tea; Xiaoyu takes coffee. Neither convinces the other.
The manager
小雨，喝茶还是喝咖啡？
Xiǎoyǔ, hē chá háishi hē kāfēi ?
Xiaoyu, tea or coffee?
Xiaoyu
咖啡吧，谢谢张经理。
Kāfēi ba, xièxie Zhāng jīnglǐ.
Coffee please, thank you Mr Zhang.
The manager
你们年轻人都喝咖啡。
Nǐmen niánqīngrén dōu hē kāfēi.
You young people all drink coffee.
Xiaoyu
早上不喝一杯，上午就没精神。
Zǎoshang bù hē yī bēi, shàngwǔ jiù méi jīngshen.
Without a cup in the morning I never make it to midday.
The manager
我喝了三十年茶，晚上喝了也睡得着。
Wǒ hē le sānshí nián chá, wǎnshang hē le yě shuì de zhe.
I have drunk tea for thirty years, and I can drink it at night and still sleep.
Xiaoyu
我喝茶就睡不着。
Wǒ hē chá jiù shuì bù zhe.
Tea keeps me awake.
The manager
那是你喝得太浓了。
Nà shì nǐ hē de tài nóng le.
That is because you make it too strong.
Xiaoyu
您平时喝什么茶？
Nín píngshí hē shénme chá ?
What tea do you usually drink?
The manager
绿茶。夏天喝绿茶，冬天喝红茶。
Lǜchá. Xiàtiān hē lǜchá, dōngtiān hē hóngchá.
Green tea. Green in summer, red in winter.
Xiaoyu
有什么不一样？
Yǒu shénme bù yīyàng ?
What difference does that make?
The manager
绿茶比较凉，红茶比较暖。你试一个星期就知道了。
Lǜchá bǐjiào liáng, hóngchá bǐjiào nuǎn. Nǐ shì yī gè xīngqī jiù zhīdào le.
Green is held to be cooling and red warming. Try it for a week and you will see.
着 is read zháo here and means the aim is achieved: 睡着, to fall properly asleep, as against 睡, to go to bed. The complement of possibility gives 睡得着, to manage to sleep, and 睡不着, to fail to. The same 着 serves in 找着了, to have found it at last. Do not confuse it with the 着 of 站着, which is read zhe and marks a state.
When the duration comes between the verb and its object, Chinese writes 喝了三十年茶 and not 喝茶了三十年. The rule holds for all simple objects: 学了三年中文; 住了二十年北京 would rather be said 在北京住了二十年. The other solution, seen in lesson 12, is to repeat the verb.
What English calls black tea is 红茶 in Chinese, red tea, named for the colour of the liquor and not that of the leaf. The name 黑茶 exists and means something else: the post-fermented teas, pu-erh among them. Translating 红茶 as black tea is right about the product and wrong about the word, and this lesson keeps the Chinese word.
