A Cursed Chinese License Plate

This is related to a previous post I wrote about 666 being very lucky in China here . A while back I found a license plate that most Chinese people would find totally cursed.
The number 4 in Chinese, 四 si4 (in Mandarin) rhymes with 死 si3 (in Mandarin) meaning death. As such, Chinese people avoid the number 4 like the plague. The number 4 to Chinese people is considered cursed and very unlucky. Continue reading “A Cursed Chinese License Plate”

Using Idle Time For Studying Chinese

Nowadays, many of use are super busy in our lives, and regarding making time to study a language, it can seem like we never have enough time (or any) for studying. While it may be true that some of us are busier than ever, all of us have downtime, times where we aren’t really doing much, like commuting to work, school, or doing other activities that require a lot of waiting. This article will discuss ways in which you can, in effect, use times when you aren’t doing much, and use them for studying. Continue reading “Using Idle Time For Studying Chinese”

How To Type Natively In Chinese In Linux

Setting up and installing different language packs in Linux is generally very easy. I am going to explain how to install Chinese  using Linux Mint 12 using Gnome Classic, the steps of which are nearly identical in Mate. These same steps work for Linux Mint 13 with Mate, Linux Mint 17, probably Linux Mint 18, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 14.04, likely Ubuntu 16.04 and other various versions and derivatives of Ubuntu. The steps may vary slightly if you have a different distribution or version of Linux such as Debian Jessie. Continue reading “How To Type Natively In Chinese In Linux”

666 In Chinese Culture

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When you see the number 666, do you think it is very lucky or very unlucky? Why? If you come from a Western country, or a country greatly influenced by Christianity, then you might think that 666 is very unlucky because from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, 666 is the number of the beast (the Antichrist), and hence extremely unlucky or even an evil number. But in China, 666 is very lucky. This article will discuss 666 In Chinese Culture and show several example photos of this. Continue reading “666 In Chinese Culture”