Chinese Lesson: Finding Drinking Buddies

This back alley Beijing place apparently has some fxxking good mojitos. Also, the coordination of Kaitlin’s shirt in this picture is completely by accident. So what do you say to get some of your new Chinese friends to go out and have a drink? Two words:

喝酒

Pinyin (i.e. the transcription of the Chinese words into Latin script): he1 jiu3 The numbers indicate what tone each word is said in. Click below for a pronunciation link: Pronunciation: “h-uh” and “jee-oh” (say it all like one syllable). Translation: to drink (like…alcohol) That second character “jiu,” is sort of the catch-all word for alcohol…be it wine, white lightning, beer, whatever. If you want to get more descriptive, you just add a character or two to specify what KIND of “jiu” you’re talking about. For instance: “putao jiu,” where “putao” means “grape” = wine “hongjiu,” where “hong” means “red” = red wine  “baijiu,” where “bai” means “white” = a clear liquid that closely resembles rocket fuel I feel like I’m really doing my job as an educator here.  Hope you enjoyed today’s lesson, folks. I feel compelled to do as the liquor commercials do and add the following disclaimer: (enjoy responsibly.).  That is all.