Cultural Difference in Counting

Culture is a set of patterns of behaviors and beliefs that is usually formed within a geographical region. Even within China, there are big cultural differences in the southern and the northern parts. For example, in north China, during the first month of the Chinese New Year, those people whose mother has bothers are not allowed to have their hair cut, as it is believed that doing so will bring bad luck or illness to their mothers’ brothers, while people in the south China never believe in this.

It is no surprise that the people from different countries have different ways of expressing themselves. Recall how we count numbers by hand. From the first day of my primary school, I was taught how to count from one to ten using one hand. At the beginning, I thought such counting method was common through out the world. However, I learnt later that European people count using two hands and in some Asian counties people use one hand but in different ways. Interestingly, what the European people mean by two is what Chinese mean by eight and is what Singaporeans mean by seven.

I cannot help laughing when reminiscing about the bargain experience of my Chinese teacher in London. He could not speak English, and used fingers to bargain for a pot with a seller. The seller, using his fingers as well, asked for twenty pounds with the thumb and the index finger. My teacher thought it was eighty pounds and bid for fifty in return, using all five fingers. The seller was quite honest and insisted on twenty pounds. At last, my teacher became very impatient. He just threw fifty pounds to the seller and took away the pot proudly.





Chinese Counting for 1-10

Japanese Counting for 7

European Counting for 7