Chinese aristocrats drink a lot of tea. Oddly you never see them peeing.
If you are one of my students who is also learning Chinese, you need to stop learning chinese now. The reason is imbeded in the story that follows.
So people with the money to drink a lot of tea also tend to have large extended families and many nieces and nephiews from the countryside who didnt get an aristocratic upbringing. The usually are so far removed from the main family that they dont even speak the same dialect. When they are sent to serve in the big house they have to learn comportment which includes learning a form of court mandarin suited to their station. This is the only instatutionalized form of instruction in the chinese language that has ever existed. I will elaborate on the non instatutional form later. These country bumpkins are taught a set list of phrases and words that will perfectly enable them to do their job, mark their station and make them non offensive to their more sophistocated relatives. Nothing that they say beyond this script is audible and they will be punnished for speaking their native dialect after this training. If the training is successfull, they seem to stand around a lot, not really doing much at all, then they are remembered by name, sometimes introduced to those of higher rank around their relative. Something is said to them which triggers them to indicate they need a private conference with their uncle, who magnanamously consents.
now let me explain a running toilet to you.
Chinese chamber pots are often deep and narrow. They are designed to be carried descreetly beneath the clothing. some are not even pots but more like tubes or funnels.
This is the kind of chinese you will learn unless you are in the following situation.
Some people from countries that often do business with China and who maintain perminant commited reltionships over generations hire full time tutors for their children who teach them chinese from literature. They may never acquire a complete vocabulary but what they are able to say is considered interesting and pleasant.
