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In the past, people believed that clinking glasses was a way to     show trust.

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In medieval times, there was a fear of     being poisoned, so some people would clink glasses hard enough     to spill drinks into each other’s cups.

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The sound of the clink was also thought to frighten away     evil spirits during celebrations.

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Today, it is a symbol of friendship and celebration,     especially during special events like weddings, birthdays, or New Year’s     parties.

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In many cultures, clinking glasses is also a way to make     eye contact and show respect to the people around you.

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Some traditions even say it brings good luck to the     group if everyone participates.

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Useful Phrases

“Cheers!”

– A common word said during a toast.

“Let’s raise a glass to…”

– Used to propose a toast (e.g.,       "Let's raise a glass to the happy couple!").

“To your health!”

– A traditional toast wishing someone good       health.

“Bottoms up!”

– An informal way to tell someone to drink.

“Here’s to [something or someone]”

– A phrase to begin a toast       (e.g., "Here's to success!").

“A toast to…”

– Another way to begin a toast (e.g., "A toast to friendship!").

Hi, everyone. And welcome to yet a new segment in our show.

By the way. Hi, 安澜.

Hello.

So this new segment, think of it as a spin-off from one of your favorite segments called 【It Means What?】 (词源考古研究所), 这个相当于那个的姐妹篇because in【 It Means What?】 we are exploring words and phrases, right?

Yes, so in this particular segment, we are gonna be exploring why we do certain things. We'll be looking at some of the origins of some of the most common everyday traditions and practices, human behaviors, and we will be teaching a few phrases along the way.

And we decided to call this segment, 【Oh, So That's Why!】中文名叫【原来如此】, 安澜, you're not gonna give us a weird sound for this one? So that's why.

Nah.

All right, so this is the pilot episode. 今年是试播的这一集and tell us what you think.

The first in 【Oh, So That's Why】we're going to be discussing “Why Do We Clink Glasses When Toasting”?

为什么我们喝酒的时候要干杯, 要碰杯, 那个杯子要碰在一起. why?

So you probably have done this many times before, in many cultures.

This happens in lots and lots of cultures. The idea that when you're with someone is polite and a nice gesture to clink glasses.

Clink the word is clink.

Yes.

C-l-i-n-k.

So in the past, people believe that clinking glasses was a way to show trust. Now some people say that it comes from medieval times.

中世纪.

And there was a fear of being poisoned.

So some people would clink glasses or cups hard enough to spill drinks into each other's cup. That was a way of showing it's not poisoned.

So when we try to test if something is poisoned or was poisoned, we just used a silver needle. You guys like clinked the glass or clinked the... not glasses, I think back then it was probably tin cups.

Yeah.

那个时候肯定不是玻璃杯，就碰碎了。那种比如金属的那种, 然后碰完了之后, if you clash them or clink them so hard, then your drink will spill over to the other person's drink.

So if they poisoned your drink, they are now getting the poison as well.

That is weird.

I'm not 100% sure if that's true or not. That's the most common explanation I've seen.

But there's also another explanation and I think this probably a little bit more likely that the sound of the clink was to drive away evil spirits during celebrations.

So evil spirits would hear the sound of the glasses being clinked. Same as for example bells drive away evil spirits.

Or like our firecrackers around New Year. I mean there's some commonality across cultures.

So today it is used a lot in celebrations and it's a symbol of friendship. So weddings, birthdays or New Year's parties.

By the way, 安澜, if it's a really long table or really big table, you can't really reach the actual glass. Do you also clink it on the table?

Not really no, some people do, but what we would do is we would make the gesture to someone and look them in the eye or just look around.

So not really clink it, not really touching the glass.

For example, in weddings, the toasts are a very important part. And there are speeches and everyone has to take part in the toast.

Yes. And then obviously everyone's trying to toast towards the bride and groom’s direction. They're not really touching their glasses.

So in lots of cultures, it's important also to make eye contact when toasting.

Is it a case in British culture? I know in Italian culture the other day I was talking about this with people, so in Italian culture it’s very important to make eye contact, to look people in the eye when you're clinking their glass.

Yes. But in the UK a little bit less so, but it's still a nice gesture. It’s not as bad as in Germany where you have 7 years of bad luck if you don't look someone in the eye when toasting.

Wow, so they actually say that, 7 years of bad luck, if you don't look people in the eye, when you're toasting them.

Well,they actually say something similar to that, but it's also bad luck.

Yes, I know that, guys if you want to know the real story.

Look online, it's not 7 years of bad luck.

Yes, but it's 7 years of bad something.

One other thing though in China sometimes when we clink glasses, I don't know if this is all over China, but in certain... I don't know, like business etiquette, they say there's a seniority to it, so you cannot go like when you clink the other person's glass, you cannot make your glass taller than theirs.

There's have to be like somewhat of a position based on seniority.Have you heard of that?

I've lived in China for years and years and years.

But only in China, you don't have that kind of rules?

We don't have that in the UK, no. So in a lot of cases, you just have to have it level, and that's probably maybe part of the reason why you clink it hard enough, it spills the drink into the other person's glass.

So it goes back to the poison?

Could be.

All right. And what if it is a small enough table, does that mean that I have to touch the other person's glass instead of just making a gesture, a general gesture.

Yes, generally if it's a small enough group, then you would just basically all do it at the same time, to show that I actually mean it.

Yeah.

Actually make my glass touch your glass.就一定碰到, 只要你能够得着, 碰到就算. I see.

Now to end this episode, let's talk about some of the phrases that people say in English.

The most common phrase is “cheers”.

But I have also heard you saying cheers as in Thank You.

In British English, particularly in London, cheers also means thank you.

So if I help you with something small, you can just say cheers Lulu.

Exactly. So cheers in that way can also mean thank you. But in this context it just means cheers, it’s what we say during a toast.

I've also heard people say “to your health”.

Yes.

Let's drink to your health. 就是祝你健康那个，长命百岁。

Yeah, you would say “to your health” or “your health”, it's quite traditional.

And if you have a particular something or someone that you want to be toasting, for example, if we are doing a business deal, I can say here's to a successful deal.

Here's to a successful opening.

Here's to a successful meeting, here's to the holiday, here's to the meeting, and so on. Here's to...

Or it can be to people. Here's to the new couple at a wedding.

So in that type of situation, we would probably say let's raise a glass to...

So very formal. Let's raise a glass to the happy couple.

Exactly.

让我们共同举杯, 祝他们百年好合.

You'd also say I like to make a toast to...

I like to make a toast to. Yeah, this is when you propose a toast, if you're with lots of people, you want to call people's attention.

For example, if you as another company, you invited me to give a speech or something and then I can say I would like to propose a toast to our host, our wonderful host.

Very very formal and in some very formal situations in the UK we would have something called the loyal toast, that is a toast to the King.

So why would you be toasting the King if you're not at the royal banquet?

This is done in the army or the navy and also some other very formal situations. You would make a toast to the King, so the host will just stand up and say a toast to His Majesty and Her Majesty. And then you would sing the National Anthem.

Very patriotic.

Very formal.

But that's called a “loyal toast”, not the “royal toast”.

A loyal toast because it's also a way of showing your loyalty.

I see, by the way, I've heard of an expression called toastmaster. What is a toast master? Is this someone who's like in charge of toasting?

You would have a toastmaster, so someone who would lead the toast in a formal situation, but also Toastmasters now is an organization for...

for public speech.

Yes, to teach public speaking, to encourage public speaking.

头马. All right.

One last question, do you not have 干杯? I think there's bottoms up. Do you actually say that.

We do say bottoms up. It’s a little bit informal, but we don't really have that 干杯culture, we would say do a shot.

But that is really if you're kind of with very close friends or you're a bit drunk, you would say do shots.

Do you not have what you see in American college scenes and go chug, chug chug,  就是干了。

Yes, when I was at university, I would say yeah.

But keep this in mind. Practically no business situations would require you to do that.

Generally in English speaking countries, when you think about bottoms up or chug chug chug, it's more about college life, when you didn't have to work, you just like partying all day.

Yeah.

But let's be honest, I'm too old now to have the time to do that.

Okay. So that ends our first pilot episode of 【Oh, So That's Why】.

Leave us a comment in the comment section. Tell us what do you think about this new segment and put in your request if you like it, put in your request with regard to what topics you want us to talk about.

So until next time!

We'll see you next time.

Bye bye.