Hey Look! A Post About China

So I realize that most of my posts could be about any teacher at any school in any country, which specific mentions about China only happening every once in a while. (Usually when I complain about transferring subway lines in People's Square) But in my recent classes we've been talking about culture and I've learned some new stuff about China that I thought would be interesting to put in here for all of you.

I started the class by asking the students to pretend that I had never been to China before and that I knew nothing about it. I wanted them to tell me everything that they thought was important to know. Some of it I already knew but some of it was totally news to me. Here is some of the stuff that they mentioned that I hope you'll find interesting.

-The number four in Chinese sounds like the word "death" in Chinese, so four is considered an unlucky number
-You shouldn't give a clock as a gift because it means that you want that person to die soon
-You shouldn't give shoes to your boyfriend or girlfriend because it means you want them to leave
-You shouldn't share a pear with a friend because it means that you will drift apart
-If you give a gift of a cup to someone, it means that you are full of love for them
-You shouldn't open an umbrella indoors or you won't grow any taller
-Men shouldn't wear a green hat because it means their girlfriend/wife is cheating on him. Therefore, a woman should not give her boyfriend/husband a green hat as a present
-Calling someone 250 apparently means idiot?
-8 and 6 are lucky numbers
-If you give money in a red envelope (for new years or a wedding or something), the money should be even, like 400RMB.
-The person who makes the invitation for dinner should pay, although most of the younger generation has no problem "going dutch" or "AA" as they call it (and I don't know why they call it AA)


That's really all I can remember. Hope you think it's interesting.

So ends your Chinese culture lesson for the day.

-Stephanie