英文豆知識 – 紅茶

抱歉之前拖了這麼久都沒更新（沒梗的下場），來畫點圖吧！

之前介紹了跟咖啡有關的小知識，這次自然就要談談紅茶了～英國人喜歡紅茶，如何稱呼一杯紅茶也有不同的方法呢。雖然不少人會像美國人說"a cuppa"（也就是"a cuppa tea"），但是有一種比較少聽到的叫法是"a spot of tea"－也就是一小杯紅茶的意思

那麼為什麼這樣叫呢？在英式英文中，"spot"算是一種很古老的俗語，是很小量的意思。雖然這個用詞比較老派，但是有一些英文常用的俚語也會用到呢！除了前面提到的"a spot of tea"，也會有"a spot of bother"用來形容一些小煩惱。

不過有時候"a spot of tea"會被美國人用來揶揄自己像英國人般喝茶的樣子…

說到紅茶文化，英國人喜歡紅茶的程度原來比想像中要大喔～有多大？英國流行使用電熱水壺（也就是快煮壺）來準備泡茶用的熱水，但是這些電熱水壺很吃電的。平時大家泡茶的時間都不同所以感覺不太明顯，但是如果很多人同一時間泡茶，整個國家的電力要求會一下子變得很大。
如何解決呢？原來英國有一些發電站是專門為了應付這些突然的大量電力需求而設，當中公司會要求那裡的員工留意電視播放的節目，目的就是猜測何時觀眾會集體想泡茶（例如劇集大結局之類）

你沒聽錯，英國人喝茶喝到要去興建專門的發電站。

最明顯的一次好像是1990年世界盃準決賽，英格蘭對西德那一場。原因嘛？嗯…你懂的。

Sorry for putting off updates for so long (writer’s block isn’t fun), but let’s have some doodling!

Since I’ve talked about coffee last time, I might as well talk about tea~It’s pretty well known that the British love their tea, and there are different ways to call a cup of tea too. Although most would simply call it “a cuppa" or “a cuppa tea" like how the Americans call their coffee, there’s a lesser known way to call a small cup of tea: “a spot of tea"

Where did this phrase come from? Back in the day, “spot" was used as a slang for “a small amount". Although this slang is pretty old (dating back to the 18th century), it still made its way into some common phrases in modern English. Aside from “a spot of tea" as previously mentioned, “a spot of bother" is also used to talk about small problems or annoyances.

Except sometimes “a spot of tea" is used by the Americans to joke about themselves drinking tea like a British…

Speaking of the British and their tea, their obsession with this brew turns out to be more serious than I could imagine. In the UK, most people boil water for their tea using electric kettles, but those kettles eat up quite a bit of electricity. This isn’t very noticible normally as people make their tea at different times, but when a lot of people put the kettle on at the same time, the whole country suddenly needs a lot of electricity. And fast.

How do you fix this? In the UK, there are power stations reserved just for sudden large power demands like those. They even have staff keeping an eye on the TV in order to guess when TV-watchers would all want a cuppa (finales of soap operas, for example)

You heard me right. The British love their tea so much they have to build power stations for it.

What’s the biggest example of this “TV pickup"? Apparently it’s the England vs West Germany match in the 1990 World Cup semifinals. Gee I wonder why…