162 Free (Of Charge)

It is said that Americans truly cherish their freedom! However, in this episode, Josh from Transition and ShaoLan are talking about the kind of  “free” that means you don’t need to pay for something. Lots of things which used to cost a lot of money in the past, today are free, such as long distance calling or even video conferencing. Lots of social media platforms are also free, although do we simply pay for them in other ways? On top of discussing the word ‘free’ in Chinese, Josh and ShaoLan go on to talk about all kinds of different costs in Chinese that you may encounter, such as household bills, transport costs or even tipping in restaurants!

In Chinese there are a number of different ways to say “free” but the most common is 免費/免费. The word 免 means “unnecessary” or “not need” and 費/费 is “cost,” so together the word means “cost not needed” or simply, “free.”