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Seth G

@nowenluan

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Translator. Musician. Tea Bandit.
翻譯 | 音樂愛好者 | 茶賊王
獨在異鄉為異客

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About five years ago, the Tea and Beverage Research Station of Taiwan's Ministry of Agriculture launched a certification program for tea sensory evaluation, focusing on Taiwanese teas. I decided to attend the 30-hour fundamentals course this year and take the certification test, which included four parts: 50 multiple-choice questions of book knowledge (history, cultivars, legal regulations, tea garden management, chemistry, processing, etc.), water tasting (identifying waters with barely detectable notes of saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness, and zero alteration), dry tea leaf identification, and tea liquor identification. It was a fun challenge, and I managed to score 98/100, just missing two of the water identification questions. Water is surprisingly difficult to identify! The pouchong and gaoshan wulong also have some closely overlapping tasting notes which can be tricky to separate depending on which versions the test administrators decide to brew.

Anyway - highly recommended. Huge thanks to Kai Ping Academy (@kaiping.academy) and former TBRS director Chen Kuo-ren for hosting this. This course significantly deepened my familiarity with Taiwanese tea, and it was interesting to see how the Ministry of Agriculture approaches tea training as opposed to courses offered by private tea businesses.

This particular course was offered in Mandarin, but there is also an English version of the same course, and you can check online on the TBRS website to find more information about scheduling, etc.

I'll certainly be back for the intermediate course and certification in September. by @nowenluan

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6 months ago

Translation of the ninth poem in an anthology of poetry by 15th century Vietnamese poet, Nguyễn Trãi.

9) 偶成 Ngẫu Thành

世上黃粱一夢餘
Thế thượng hoàng lương nhất mộng dư.
覺來萬事總成虛
Giác lai vạn sự tổng thành hư.
如今只愛山中住
Như kim chỉ ái sơn trung trú,
結屋花邊讀舊書
Kết ốc hoa biên, độc cựu thư.

Spontaneous Verse

Worldly ambitions are merely dreams.
When you awaken, they all seem empty.
These days, I prefer the mountains,
in a thatched hut, surrounded by flowers, reading old books.

Photo: Tây Côn Lĩnh mountains, Hà Giang, Vietnam by @nowenluan

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a year ago

Translation of a 15th century poem by Nguyễn Trãi (Vietnam). This is the first poem in a 19th century collection of 110 poems by Nguyễn Trãi titled 抑齋詩集 (Ức Trai Thi Tập)

遊山寺 Du Sơn Tự
Visiting a Mountain Temple

短棹繫斜陽
Đoản trạo hệ tà dương
匆匆謁上方
Thông thông yết thượng phương
雲歸禪榻冷
Vân quy thiền tháp lãnh
花落澗流香
Hoa lạc giản lưu hương
日暮猿聲急
Nhật mộ viên thanh trường
山空竹影長
Sơn không trúc ảnh trường
箇中真有意
Cá trung chân hưu ý
欲語忽還忘
Dục ngữ hốt hoàn vương

Tiny boat moored in the fading light,
I quicken my pace as I ascend.
Returning clouds send a chill through the temple.
A scent of fallen flowers flows from the stream.
Monkey chatter rises as the sun sets.
Mountain bamboo casts a lengthening shadow.
The scene touches me.
Helplessly, I search for words. by @nowenluan

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a year ago

#chuyêntrà #專茶 by @nowenluan

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2 years ago

I picked up a duduk when traveling through Armenia back in 2022 but haven't had much time to practice since then. But in the interest of traveling light, I stowed my guitar in Saigon a few months ago and decided to bring the duduk instead. Wind instruments are completely new territory to me and it's been pretty difficult to pick up any techniques or correct mistakes without a teacher. And honestly it was a struggle to get any sound other than a squeal out of the duduk since bringing it out of Armenia. After digging through some YouTube tutorials a few weeks ago I realized that the whole time I've been putting the reed into the instrument upside down. So I flipped over the reed and the damn thing finally started working, much to the delight of everyone who's been suffering through listening to an upside down reed for months. The next challenge will be learning how to correctly puff out my cheeks and breathe using my diaphragm, like the duduk masters of olde.

Haven't given up yet, @taguhi.koenigin888 ! by @nowenluan

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2 years ago

In the late 1970s, new laws made it illegal for shops in southern Vietnam to sell tea and coffee. A black market soon sprung up, but the risk for getting caught was high, so tea and coffee prices skyrocketed. To stretch out the coffee and make it more affordable, sellers started mixing coffee beans with roasted corn. After drinking this unique coffee and corn blend for years, some customers started to prefer the new taste and kept requesting it years after legal restrictions ended and unblended coffee became available everywhere. It still exists today, and it's surprisingly good.

#coffee #vietnamesecoffee by @nowenluan

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3 years ago

Vietnamese Tea Tasting

9/27(水)14:00-18:00

Venue:
三人灯 (西荻窪)
Sanninto (Nishi-Ogikubo)

*参加無料 / Free Event / 參加免費 / Miễn phí *

一年間に渡ってベトナムを回り、お茶を研究したり集めたりしたアラスカ人のセスと申します。その大量に日本ヘ持ち込んだお茶を味わいましよう！

I'm Seth, an Alaskan who has spent 1 year researching and collecting teas around Vietnam. Let's try them!

我是周遊越南一年研究並收集各種茶的美國阿拉斯加人塞斯。這次來日本我帶了很多越南茶，我們一起來喝茶吧！

Tôi là Seth, đến từ Alaska - Mỹ. Tôi đã trải qua 1 năm nghiên cứu và sưu tập các loại trà từ khắp các vùng trà của Việt Nam. Hãy cùng đến uống trà với tôi nhé.

In collaboration with:

@nolimit_koenji
@huyendinh.tea
@kieuthi.tea
#koenji_bangaichi by @nowenluan

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3 years ago

How to read the date on an old bronze bell in a temple. This particular bell is located at Thien Mu Pagoda (Chùa Thiên Mụ 天姥寺) in Huế, central Vietnam. by @nowenluan

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3 years ago

Chè đàm is one of the rarest and most unique ways of preparing tea in Vietnam. by @nowenluan

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3 years ago

Chè tươi: How to drink fresh tea leaves by @nowenluan

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3 years ago

Scenes from lotus season in Northern Vietnam. by @nowenluan

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3 years ago

Reading is one of the best ways to learn a new language, because every word that you encounter appears in a larger context of grammar, sentences and ideas. But when you're first getting started it's easy to get bogged down in the process of constantly looking up new words. And ultimately, no dictionary can capture all the possible nuances of a word or phrase. Languages are just too vast. So to help get around that, I'm trying a new strategy which I've heard works pretty well: reading the original version of a book while also reading a version that has been translated into my native language (English). I'll be starting with the book "Số đỏ" (Dumb Luck) - a satirical novel written by Vietnamese author Vũ Trọng Phụng in 1936. (Special thanks to Phương for gifting me the copy of the original version!) by @nowenluan

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4 years ago