226 Text Messages

Do you like to send text messages? How many do you send in a day on different apps and how quickly do you reply to messages? Jesse Edbrooke and ShaoLan talk about the culture of sending and receiving messages and expectations surrounding how quickly one should or shouldn’t reply to them. ShaoLan teaches the Chinese words not only for “text message” but also for “send” and “to reply.” Did you know that the verb “to send” is also an extremely popular word in Chinese because it relates to prosperity? Jesse also makes sure to get the tones right so as not to confuse replying to a text message with a Taoist festival!

In Chinese 短信 means “text message.” The first character 短 describes something that is short if it horizontal (there is a different word for vertical things that are short). The second character 信, is made up of the character for “person” and the character for “word” and includes two meanings because when a person gives a word, they give a “message” but if a person gives their word then you can “trust” them. Therefore, the character 信 can mean “message” or “trust” depending on the context. In this case, 短信 simply means “short message.”