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Amir
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Tu
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Tea Time
Amir talks with Tu about the tradition of drinking tea in his home country of Iran.
Tu: So, I heard that Iran is very famous for it's coffee?
Amir: Well, not coffee actually, the tea.
Tu: The tea? What is special about it?
Amir: Well, we love tea. We have to drink tea. Some of the people, if they don't drink two or three glasses of tea, cups of tea, they have headaches.
Tu: Headaches.
Amir: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they are very much picky about the color of the tea. Everybody orders differently. Some people say pour very colored strong tea. Some people say, "No, No, I don't want it that strong." The medium. Everybody has their own taste.
Tu: So, I guess you got a lot of tea shops.
Amir: Yeah, yeah, we have traditional one, which is very interesting for the tourists I believe, where you go in and you sit down, no chairs there, and it's actually cushions just behind you, so you can lie on this cushions and you know, kind of like lying position. You can straighten your legs and the servant will bring you tea.
Actually, the drinking tea in Iran is a little different from other countries.
Tu: Different? How?
Amir: Well, we have a glass or a cup of tea, and beneath that we have something called estikan, which you put the glass or cup on that, and, well, the way you drink it is that you have to pick up the cubic sugar. It is a cubic. It's not like other powder of sugar. You pick it up and then you tip it inside the tea a little bit. When it gets the most, you put it inside your mouth, and you drink tea when the cubic sugar is in your mouth.
Tu: It takes time.
Amir: That's the way you drink it. You will get used to it. Just try once. It's actually good.
Tu: Do you go there often?
Amir: Once a year. Yeah.
Tu: Once a year! Okay. It's interesting. I will try.
picky
They are picky about the tea.
When you are picky about something, that means you are very choosy about it. To be picky means you are very particular about what you want or like. Notice the following:
- He does not have a girlfriend because he is very picky about who he dates.
- I am very picky about what I eat.
cushions
We sit on the cushions.
A cushion is a big pillow or soft bag that people can lie on or sit on to be more comfortable. However, a cushion can also refer to a large big blanket on a futon. Notice the following:
- There are many cushions to sit on on the floor.
- Each chair had a cushion to sit on.
cubic
cubic sugar
When something is cubic, that means it is shaped like a cube. A cube is shaped like a box. If something is cubic, it has six sides. You can have cubic sugar or cubic slices of fruit. Notice the following:
How many cubic meters is the box?
It is 5 cubic meters in size.
That's the way
That's the way you drink it.
Here, the word 'way' can be replaced with 'how', so 'That's the way you drink it' could also be said 'That's how you drink it.' The word 'way' refers to the process or style of doing something. Notice the following:
- Let me show you the way I make pasta.
- I don't like the way you drive.
get used to
You will get used to it.
To get used to doing something, means to become comfortable doing it. Also, when you get used to something, it becomes easier or natural to do. People often get used to something, by doing it or being exposed to it again and again. Notice the following:
- It took me awhile to get used to driving on the other side of the road.
- After I broke my right hand, I had to get used to using my left hand for everything.
Vocabulary Quiz
get used to • that is the way
