Why almost every language calls tea ‘Tea’ or ‘Cha’

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Transcript

00:00Did you know that almost every language in the world calls tea by just two words, tea or cha?

00:06Let's start with the word cha that was spread to ancient land roots, the Silk Road.

00:11Over 2,000 years ago, Chinese tea traveled bus through Central Asia and Persia.

00:17Today, you will hear similar words across the Middle East and even Eastern Europe.

00:22All say cha or chai.

00:23In Asia, it's the same story. Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand will call it cha too.

00:30Now for tea. That word came from Hokkien dialect of China.

00:34Dutch traders picked it up from the parts like Fujian and Taiwan in the 1600s and brought it west by sea.

00:41That's why countries that traded by sea, like most of Western Europe, all say tea.

00:47So, team tea is by sea and team cha is by land.

00:51Are you team tea or team cha? Let us know in the comments.