An ocarina is a small wind instrument. You blow into a mouthpiece and cover finger holes to change the note. The body is often round or egg-shaped; many are made of clay, though plastic and wood ones exist too. It has a soft, hollow, slightly sweet sound — not as sharp as a recorder. The English word was borrowed from Italian ocarina, literally “little goose,” because the old shape looked a bit like one. In Taiwan you will hear 陶笛, which is the name students already know. Though actually, not every ocarina is ceramic, and not every 陶笛 in a school music room is the same size or tuning; some are toys, some are serious instruments. A lot of younger people first met the word through the game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where the hero plays one. That made a rather old, quiet instrument feel famous again.