Shuttlecock

How many times had I said this word in my whole lifetime before Taiwan?  0-2, I'd estimate.  How many times after?  Mmm, it's in the hundreds, for sure.

Why?  Taiwan has a national obsession with shuttlecock.  Every level I teach includes that word somewhere.  All the time in class, it's shuttlecock shuttlecock shuttlecock.

Again, why?   Because they love to play something that resembles badminton.  This doesn't involve a net, but does involve 2 people standing (in front of my building, in front of their classroom at school [not buxiban]), in a park, on the street, batting a shuttlecock back and forth with their badminton rackets.  Anytime you've got 5 spare minutes- bat around the old shuttlecock!

Also, the same word in Chinese means badminton and shuttlecock, so they always call it shuttlecock.  As in, "Yesterday, I played shuttlecock."

No, they don't call them birdies.  How I wish they did.