Stop talking the “five four three!” (Number)

Have you ever wondered , when in elevators of some of Taiwan’s hospitals, that where the hell the fourth floor is? Why is it missing?

The number 4 sounds like “death” in Taiwanese. That’s why people don’t like to hear it in the hospital, let alone staying in that floor. It’s something like number 13 to some westerners.

But we do love number 8 and 9, for the former sounds like 發(fa), to prosper, while the latter sounds exactly the same as 久 (jiu3), long. We want good things to last long. Now you know why thousands of people in Taiwan got married on the ninth day of September, 2010, because it was the 99^th ROC year. And that explains as well why the number of my car plate will never be something like 8888, 9999. Only rich people who can afford a huge amount of extra money will have them.

The different favors for numbers also extends to the daily language. In English, you say “at sixes and sevens” but we say 亂七八糟 (luan4 qi ba zao), which involves seven and eight. “Two heads are better than one,” in English while “三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮” (san ge chou4 pi2 jiang4, sheng4 guo4 yi2 ge zhu ge3 liang4) in Chinese, meaning three stinky cobblers are better than Zhu ge3 liang4, the smartest and best-known military strategist in the Chinese history, whose story you’ve seen in the film “Red Cliff.”

When referring to those good-for-nothing hoodlums, we use the adjective “不三不四,” (bu4 san bu2 s4) literally translated as non-three, non-four. But keeping “三妻四妾,” (san qi s4 qie4)  three wives and four concubines is almost every man’s dream. Nobody likes 三姑六婆 (san gu liu4 puo2),because it refers to those gossipy females who love sniffing around people’s private stuff. Three and six are the numbers while姑and婆 refer to women. (Hym, a bit of sexism, I think. Sometimes guys are even more三姑六婆!)

What exactly “五四三”(u3 s4 san) mean? Well, it originates in the Taiwanese dialect, which means nonsense. So, if a Taiwanese says, “Stop talking the ‘五四三’, “ that means you should stop your nonsense talk, which is definitely not what I’m doing. I’m not talking the five four three. I’m teaching you useful Chinese!

發=发 (Simplified)

亂七八糟=乱七八糟

三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮=三个臭皮匠，胜过一个诸葛亮