Archive for Numbers

The perils of "7" and "9" in Cantonese

September 28, 2016 @ 5:46 pm· Filed by under Language and advertising, Names, Numbers, Slang, Topolects

Here we go again:

"Samsung’s Galaxy On7 goes official" (Marketing-Interactive, 9/28/16)

As we’ve covered shortly two weeks ago, the pronunciation of “7″ sounds like “penis” in Cantonese, and the latest Samsung Galaxy On7 launch has once again stirred up discussion on the internet in Hong Kong.

The Cantonese pronunciation of  “On9″ [sic: there seems to be a mix-up here] is similar to slang meaning “stupid”, and many are saying the new release is a crossover between the two slang words.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (11)

Japanese numero-mnemonics

December 18, 2015 @ 9:21 am· Filed by under Numbers, Writing systems

In "Remember the First 100 Digits of Pi Using This Basic Technique" (mental_floss, 12/11/15), Caitlin Schneider describes a "memory palace" in which one can use letters to recall long strings of numbers.

The second commenter, Helvetica Baskin Robbins, describes a Japanese mnemonic system by means of which one can use numbers to recall sequences of numbers.

Comments (10)

The Shanghai Stampede: incident or accident?

January 22, 2015 @ 9:37 pm· Filed by under Language and politics, Language and the media, Numbers, Semantics

On New Year's Eve, a fatal stampede broke out on the Bund in Shanghai.  Many people died (see below for a discussion of the total number) and many more were injured, some seriously.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (23)

Mandarin by the numbers

June 8, 2013 @ 10:18 pm· Filed by under Numbers, Puns

As spectacularly demonstrated by this YouTube video, it is amazing how much one can say in Mandarin simply by punning with numbers alone:


Read the rest of this entry »

Comments (28)

« Previous Page
Next Entries »