321 Make A Phone Call
Have you ever thought that the English phrase “to punch in the numbers” was a little strange? Josh Edbrooke from Transition “calls” in to the studio to talk about the word for “make a phone call” in Chinese. It relates to drumming in a way because the Chinese word for making a phone call uses the verb “to hit,” the same word used to describe “playing” or “hitting” the drums. “Hit the phone!”
ShaoLan explains that originally in Chinese, there was a completely different word for the actual phone itself, which was simply a phonetic copy of the English, but it was super-ceded by the Japanese interpretation of the word which worked well in Chinese too. This episode also contains lots of useful phrases for using when you are talking on the phone, as well as mentioning some of the new words which have had to be invented with the onset of new technology!
The Chinese word for making a phone call is 打電話/打电话. The first character is the verb “to hit,” while the second two words mean “electricity” and “talk.” So when you “hit an electric conversation,” you are making a phone call 打電話/打电话.
