Related to my “Tone up” blog post, I want to share this little nugget of Chinese character trivia too. The word for “good” in Chinese is “hao (tone 3)”. You hear this word all the time. I think it must be the most common word in Chinese. The story behind the character is innerestin’…

Here’s the character for “good”, aka “hao3″:

好

This character is made up of two components. The character on the left is “Nu (tone 3)”. Here it is in it’s non horizontally squished form:

女

The character on the right is “Zi (tone2)”. Here it is:

子

The first character, “Nu (tone2)”, means “Girl”. The other, “Zi (tone 2)”, means “Son”, or “Male”. So, put “girl” and “boy” (essentially) together and that equals “good”. So, any time anybody who speaks or reads Chinese sees the word “good”, they’re reminded of “girl plus boy”. I doubt, actually, that that is what goes through a native speaker’s head every time they see or hear “hao3″, but obviously everyone who reads the characters is aware of this. My opinion is that this is a great example of how a language influences culture. I can’t think of anything equivalent in English like this, can anyone? There are plenty of other examples of this sort of character combination or culture influencing device, but this is the most accessible. As soon as I think I’ve figured out the more complex ones, I’ll be sure to share them.

I’ll sign off with 好的 (“Alright…” )