This box of Tazo Chai drives me crazy. I do like Tazo's "Zen" green tea, and this "Chai" isn't bad either. But in some aspects, this brand is not as authentic as it advertises itself to be. The writing on this box was written by someone or some people who didn't know Hindi (that's OK, only about 180 million do), but, what's worse, didn't check the homework. I appreciate the outreach towards Eastern cultures, but the mistakes on this box are kind of silly.
First of all, chai is the Hindi word for "tea" (चाय), which makes "chai tea" sound kind of funny to its speakers. However, Chai does seem to have distinctive core ingredients such as ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom, among others. So it is a kind of specialty, special tea.
That being said, what irks me is in this description on the side of the box:
"DID YOU KNOW?
Chai has long been served by tea wallahs to travelers along the trade routes of the Himalayas..."
TAZO, DID YOU KNOW "wallah" is just a suffix?
Yes, a man who sells tea is a "chayawala"* (चायवाला). This literally means, this only means "the one with the tea". "-Wala"( or "-vala", as v and w are the same letter in Hindi) is a suffix that roughly means "the one that (has)". In the same way "konewala" (कोनेवाला) means "the one in the corner", and "aanevala" (आनेवाला) means "the one coming". It can be attached to nouns, adjectives, adverbs, or verbs. It's not a specific title - it's what you add to a word to make something more specific.
And yet this TAZO box advertises "wallah" as a specific title! They even use this in a second description on another side of the box:
"TAZO CHAI is nothing if not wondrous in its ability to gather flavors of Asia, Africa and Central America to be served in a tradition born of chai wallahs in the shadow of Mt. Everest. Who knew? (Most likely the wallahs did. They always do.)"
Again. "-Wala" is not specific enough by itself. "Kaunsa vala?" - "What kind of one?" Even "chayavala" sounds more generic than mystical.
The problem is that mistakes in translation used like this might echo that ignorant Western attribution of mysticism and exoticism towards Indian culture - "Orientalism". It's good to inspire Western consumers with curiosity and an interest in Eastern cultures. It's good to appreciate that something you bought came from a very different place. I think Tazo means to inspire that appreciation, which is commendable. But I feel that there is a potential bad joke in the mistakes. This could have been corrected if only someone was considerate enough to consult someone who actually spoke the language, before they sold it in the mass market.
And as if to add insult to injury, there's Hindi letters on the box lid that also don't make sense. There is a vertical list (Hindi's Devanagari script is not usually read vertically anyway..) of vowels which literally reads as: "ii, -ii, u, -u, uu, ru". These are only a few of the vowels (why not add "a", "e", or "o"?) and has no apparent meaning except to "look exotic". I find this frustrating, enough to rant about it on Blogger.
My father says we live in a world where you can't get away with mistakes in translation so easily anymore - there are so many people around the world who speak multiple languages, and we are more able to easily contact each other across the world. My partner also made a point that perhaps in the days of the East and West India Companies, earlier times of global trade, merchants were more responsible to have direct and personal relationships with their providers and consumers - after all, there was no Google Translate. And yet aren't we more responsible now than ever before to understand each others' languages - or at least to find someone else who does?
*I am not spelling these romanized Hindi words with textbook accuracy, but for basic understanding. My textbook would tell you that the words are spelled "chaayavaalaa", "konevaalaa, and aanevaalaa" (that vertical line you see signifies a long "a" sound), but I think it's distracting from my argument. What's more, my Indian friends probably wouldn't casually spell it "chaayavaalaa" either. I learned from them to be more relaxed about romanized Hindi.
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