Café-liscious

Now I'm not a big coffe drinker, but another great thing about 7-11 is the City Café. Don't get me wrong, I like Starbuck's and the fancy cafés you can find all over the place (especially if they have a view, like the ones by the ocean in Sanzhi near Dansui where I recently volunteered at the animal shelter), but for a guy who isn't a gourmet coffee enthusiast, the prices at these places are just a little too high(though if you save your promotional stickers you get when you spend your cash at 7-11, Starbuck's often has a buy-one-get-one-free deal măi yī sòng yī 買一送一 which is awesome if you love their frappuccinos like me!).

\"2012-08-07

They have a good menu, you can order a late ná tiĕ 拿鐵,American coffee mĕi shì kā fēi 美式咖啡,Japanese style green tea latte mŏ chá ná tiĕ 抹茶拿鐵,hot-chocolate rè qiăo kè lì 熱巧克力 and more, but I almost always get the English milk tea yīng shì năi chá 英式奶茶. It's awesome!

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Drinks come in two sizes. They don't have a small , but it is still useful vocabulary to know so I have included it, and some of their drinks only come in one size. Here are the sizes: small xiăo bēi 小杯, medium zhōng bēi 中杯, large dà bēi 大杯.

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You can order your beverage either hot rè de 熱的 or iced bīng de 冰的 drink, and if you don't like your coffee very sweet, you can tell the staff that you want half a serving of sugar bàn táng 半糖 a little sugar shăo táng 少糖,very little sugar wéi táng 微糖 or no sugar wú táng 無糖.

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That's it for now, go enjoy your fresh cup' o Jo…not the person, I mean a coffee, yuck!

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Chinese phrases of the day:

買一送一= buy one get one free
拿鐵= latte
美式咖啡= American coffee
抹茶拿鐵= Japanese style green tea latte
熱巧克力= hot-chocolate
英式奶茶= English milk tea
小杯= small(cup/drink size)
中杯= medium(cup/drink size)
大杯= large(cup/drink size)
熱的= hot
冰的= iced
半糖= half sugar
少糖= little sugar
微糖= very little sugar
無糖= no sugar

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Getting Your Money\’s Worth

If you spend even just a few days or a week in Taiwan, there are a few things that you will probably do. If you are in Taipei, you will most likely visit Taipei 101, even of you don't make it to the top. And wherever you go in Taiwan, I'd be surprised if you don't visit a night market. But the one thing I can guarantee is that you WILL visit at least one 7-11 during your stay.
\"2012-08-07

\"2012-08-07

7-11 practically runs the island, and there are so many services offered at each one of their bazillion locations that really set the chain aside from the other big players in the convenience store biàn lì shāng diàn 便利商店 biz, such as Family Mart quán jiā 全家, Hi-LIfe lái ĕr fù 萊爾富, and OK Mart. You can pay your bills, taxes, order items online or mail packages, print, scan and fax your documents, drop off your dry-cleaning, book an HSR(high-speed rail) ticket or even a domestic flight. Heck, they even have a phone and internet service! Just try doing any of that in your local 7-11 back in the states! Though you can't gas-up your car like you could in the states, but I won't hold it against them, will you?

There are often special promotions and discount prices on items in the store, and you can collect stickers when you make a purchase of a certain value and save them towards half-priced, or even free items! But I feel that a lot of foreigners will miss out on these deals, so today I wanted to bring one of them to your attention.

\"2012-08-07

\"2012-08-07
(Beverages with a certain price sticker pair up with food items, like bread or sandwiches with the same sticker. It's cheaper to buy them together as a set.)

This is just one example of a possible deal you could take advantage of. Another common one are discounts when you buy two of the same type of drink. The staff may ask you to pull a number out of a box to get your discount price (the largest discount is 1NT!), or the discount could be automatically deducted.

Another useful thing to know is that discount percentages are written opposite from the way we write them in English. Where we say "20% off" they say "8 zhé 折", but they are the same thing. The difference is while we advertise the percentage that you get discounted, they advertise the percentage you pay after the discount. So if you ever see a sign that says "79", for example, it means that the item is 21% off, not 79% off!

I hope you found this article useful, now go and get your money's worth!

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Chinese phrases of the day:

= discount (by percentage)
便利商店= convenience store(s)

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Getting Your Money\’s Worth

If you spend even just a few days or a week in Taiwan, there are a few things that you will probably do. If you are in Taipei, you will most likely visit Taipei 101, even of you don't make it to the top. And wherever you go in Taiwan, I'd be surprised if you don't visit a night market. But the one thing I can guarantee is that you WILL visit at least one 7-11 during your stay.
\"2012-08-07

\"2012-08-07

7-11 practically runs the island, and there are so many services offered at each one of their bazillion locations that really set the chain aside from the other big players in the convenience store biàn lì shāng diàn 便利商店 biz, such as Family Mart quán jiā 全家, Hi-LIfe lái ĕr fù 萊爾富, and OK Mart. You can pay your bills, taxes, order items online or mail packages, print, scan and fax your documents, drop off your dry-cleaning, book an HSR(high-speed rail) ticket or even a domestic flight. Heck, they even have a phone and internet service! Just try doing any of that in your local 7-11 back in the states! Though you can't gas-up your car like you could in the states, but I won't hold it against them, will you?

There are often special promotions and discount prices on items in the store, and you can collect stickers when you make a purchase of a certain value and save them towards half-priced, or even free items! But I feel that a lot of foreigners will miss out on these deals, so today I wanted to bring one of them to your attention.

\"2012-08-07

\"2012-08-07
(Beverages with a certain price sticker pair up with food items, like bread or sandwiches with the same sticker. It's cheaper to buy them together as a set.)

This is just one example of a possible deal you could take advantage of. Another common one are discounts when you buy two of the same type of drink. The staff may ask you to pull a number out of a box to get your discount price (the largest discount is 1NT!), or the discount could be automatically deducted.

Another useful thing to know is that discount percentages are written opposite from the way we write them in English. Where we say "20% off" they say "8 zhé 折", but they are the same thing. The difference is while we advertise the percentage that you get discounted, they advertise the percentage you pay after the discount. So if you ever see a sign that says "79", for example, it means that the item is 21% off, not 79% off!

I hope you found this article useful, now go and get your money's worth!

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Chinese phrases of the day:

= discount (by percentage)
便利商店= convenience store(s)

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————