367 To Fight

Do you want to fight?! Don’t worry, this isn’t a violent episode at all, but the guest is Martine Niven who is the UK Shaolin temple instructor and also a Kung Fu instructor. She’s fought in many martial art competitions before, but today she learns the Chinese word for “fight,” which when pronounced, should sound a bit like you really do want to fight!

However, as Martine explains, learning Shaolin Kung Fu is quite a holistic process that tries to train your body and soul, enabling you to understand yourself to a great depth and actually help you to be able not to fight! As for the Chinese, the first character from this word is very useful because it can also be used to describe making a phone call, or playing some specific sports that involve hitting a ball, such as tennis, baseball or cricket.

The way to say “fight” in Chinese is 打架. The first character 打 means “to hit” and the second character 架 means “a frame” or “a rack.” Together it represents a two-way fight, not just hitting somebody in a one-way act of aggression.