Can the be anything more enjoyable than a long evening with excessive consumption of both Skritter （死可忒?) and 洞庭碧螺春 or 黄山毛峰 green tea while listening to Chinese radio or music?

[In fact, I've been seriously asking myself for quite some time: How do some people manage to learn Chinese characters without green tea?]

Haha. Sounds lovely. I prefer 白酒 though. Although I guess it doesn't necessarily help the memory retention part. But for the fun part it does! haha

My girlfriend Chloe, who is Chinese, loves green-tea-flavored everything. I've heard reports of campus stores being raided by groups of Chinese girls whenever green tea ice cream comes in. But to me, it's just like much less sweet ice cream. It seems like green-tea-flavored things are just things with less sugar, until you can barely taste them. What's the deal? Am I just too unrefined to appreciate the flavor, or is it really aimed more at the Asian palate? I love other Chinese food...

If it gives me an edge at Chinese characters, though, I'll go make some green tea right now.

I definitely agree about the Chinese music part, but my collection is kind of limited. What kind of music do you usually listen to when Skrittering?

Also, whenever I see posts by "muer" I'm momentarily confused. Not only is it similar to my name, but people have been known to actually call me 木耳.

first of all, how can anyone prefer 白酒.... that stuff is just nasty... even most Chinese men don't seem to actually enjoy it...

@nick, well having lived in China for a couple years, I can tell you that 98% of their sweet stuff: ice cream, cake, cookies, etc. tastes extremely bland to most westerners, so I'm not sure if that means there is flavor that we can't taste or just that they can't handle the strong flavors that we are used to. The worst is milk flavored candy and ice cream... you think it's vanilla and then it's... nothing..

Of course they dump sugar in milk tea or the smoothie-like things they sell in tea shops so I'm not sure how they can complain that our cake and ice cream are too sweet...

I wish I could listen to music while skrittering... but my computer can't really handle the practice page and streaming music or even playing locally (even in a cli player :) )

Dell Inspiron 8200 ftw!

I'm a big fan of green tea, I also like bottled green tea largely because it's the least sweet softdrink you can buy.

I'd love to listen to Chinese music when skrittering. Presently I listen to Radio Paradise but I toyed with listening to Chinese podcasts but found them a little too distracting - trying to focus on what's being said isn't great for trying to remember how to write a character :)

JB, you are the first person I know who (well, have heard of:) who actually really likes 白酒。厉害:)
I prefer jasmine tea...somehow the green teas don't quite do it for me:)

I used to listen to all sorts of things while skrittering (Chinesepod, music lists on youtube, music on my computer) until I realized that I make more progress when fully concentrating on the characters (and I swith the sound of the pronounciation on of course).

You can acquire a taste for anything. 老白干！

@没中:
You probably haven't tried the right kind of green tea. If you're a real 男子汉, don't drink jasmine tea (it's for 姑娘).
While listening to the radio or music certainly does reduce the efficiency, it is the kind of natural 热闹 that is inevitably part of an authentic 汉字 writing experience. 没热闹 等于 没中国味儿

I must admit that after living in China for a while, green tea is growing on me. I still don't like the green tea crest (toothpaste) but it no longer repulses me nearly as much as it used to.

I prefer 零度可乐 as my caffine hit when studying (my classes begin at 8:30 am so I often need some cola in the afternoon). 椰子奶茶 is another drink I like but like cola is nowhere near as healthy as plain green tea.

@Hobbes Western desserts are way too sweet! The reason I love Chinese sweets (mostly cakes) is because they doesn't taste too heavy, meaning I can eat more of it. I think it tastes great and I don't get a headache or feel guilty for eating it. I grew up away from China, so it wasn't like I grew up on the stuff either. And, milk flavored candy (大白兔 anyone?) is totally good!

@Graham

Hehe
I can't be a 姑娘。I've been to the Great Wall (can't quite remember the saying, but I think it says a real man must have seen the Great Wall....now that sounds a lot less girly than drinking tea不管是什么茶:)
不过，你们说的也有道理。。。绿茶是很健康的。

@ Hobbes and Chloe
My Chinese wife at the beginning couldn't get enough of chocolate when she came to Switzerland. But after while it just got too sweet for her and now she misses Chinese cakes the most.....not too sweet but tons of cream:)

@Chloe I wonder how that happens and whether it's nature or nurture. How old were you when you were first exposed to Chinese "sweets"?

I love East Asian food but for desserts it has to be Europe or the Middle East. I've never understood why people think red bean cakes are dessert. On the other hand I was the kid who ate sugar straight from the sugar bowl. I can blame my father's genes; he puts strawberry jam into his breakfast cereal.

Green tea is acceptable but too thin; I much prefer a good strong black or red (roiboos) tea, especially with Indian spices. I'm mainly a coffee drinker though.

Green tea ice cream can be OK, especially when it's mochi ice cream. I'm not sure I would buy a half-gallon and eat it systematically like I would if it were a good vanilla or chocolate, though.

As for listening to music, my wife and I listen to a lot of Latin music so we're typically hearing Spanish or Portuguese lyrics while we're studying Chinese. (My wife is starting to get hooked on Skritter too.) I haven't gotten into Chinese music yet, aside from some traditional pipa instrumentals I like. Any recommendations?

James

Representing the Japanese side of the site.. :-)

Right now I'm listening to a bunch of MP3 recordings of old pre-war Japanese records. It's an interesting time in Japanese music because you have the influence of Western instruments. Rather than supplanting the traditional tunes, a lot of them we re-written or adapted to make use of the new sounds.

Some of these tracks are just... gorgeous. Old style Japanese female singing is not something you have a chance to hear very often.

@James, Oh, I guess I was pretty young when I was exposed to it...but it was mostly jellies and 大白兔. It's probably both nature and nuture.

In my office I have Illy espresso pods, Assam 红茶, 铁观音，银针茶，龙井茶，白茶，人参茶 and Tetley's Darjeeling green tea :-)

个有个的好处 :-)

Green Tea ice-cream rocks.