十四 Shí Sì and Chinglish

This July Mr Johnson and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.

In China the number 14 (十四) pronounced shí sì, is considered one of the unluckiest of numbers. In a language that delights itself in the auspicious and perhaps particularly in the suspicious, 十四 is considered especially bad!

The Chinese counting is a building system. If you can memorize the numbers to 10, you can get to nearly any number after it. The teen numbers are 10 + the number. The twenties are two tens + the number.

The word for 'four' (四 or sì) in Chinese sounds nearly identical to the word 'death' in Chinese. 'Ten' ( pronounced shí) sound similar to the word for certain.

Can you imagine the consequence? Ten + Four (Shí sì) sounds like 'certain death'.

As a result, elevators across the country of China lack floors 4 and 14 {and usually any number ending in four, including two/ten/four (24), three/ten/four (34) etc.} For good measure, they often omit the unlucky Western 13 as well, leaving a confusing array of numbers in the lift, usually stumping more that one foreign visitor, who quickly comes to learn the story of "death" and "certain death"

We were in St Joe, sandy and sunburned, with three kids in tow, on our actual 'certain death' anniversary date .... But we took advantage of grandparents and babysitters and celebrated in style, although somewhat belatedly, this week. (Our big girls are off galavanting in Western Canada with their maternal grands, and Bei Bei spent Monday and Tuesday in Indiana with her cousins and paternal grands)

Mr Johnson and I took advantage of our child free moments, spending

Monday Night (sweatily) dining alfresco at a local pub we'd been keen to try. (It was good, although next time we'd both pass on the 'Irish Nachos'http://www.finnegansirish.com/).

and

Tuesday we made our way into the city where stopped by the patio @ Chicago 312 (I am keen to try to figure out the recipe for the rhubarb and beefeater combination I sipped pre-show http://www.312chicago.com).

We then made our way over to the Goodman, where the run of David Henry Hwang's Chingish has been extended. The show lived up to its reviews! We enjoyed it immensely, and found that we followed much of the Mandarin dialouge -- although subtitles were available for the mostly mono-lingual audience. Chicago performances close at the end of the month, but it is moving on to Broadway ... be sure to see it if you get a chance!