JCU Chinese Culture Club

This semester, at John Cabot University, the Chinese Culture Club was created. The club was created for students and faculty members to understand the Chinese culture, to discuss the challenges of contemporary China, and to facilitate dialogue between Chinese students. As China grows at a fast pace, it is important to understand its culture and its role as a global power.

Last Friday, the Chinese Culture Club held their first meeting at Tiber Campus. There were three main sections during the meeting: Chinese language teaching lesson, ice breaker, and Chinese culture topic about gifts.

1. Chinese teaching lessons

Valeria di Muzio, the treasurer of the club started to teach some basic Chinese words to participants. Here is the lesson:

It is the basic greeting for when we meet a person and introduce ourselves. As you see, there are different signs above each word. It is the sound you will make when pronouncing that word. You can try and see if you can pronounce them!

2. Ice breaker

After we learned about some Chinese, we played a game which helped us to learn everyone’s names and a couple of things about each other. Below is the picture of the people who participated. We really had fun together!

3. Topic about Gifts

At the end of the meeting, students had learned a lot about Chinese gifts. In China, numbers are sometimes linked with gifts. The definition is: 1= lonely and stingy, 2= a pair, 3= random, 4= death (the fact that the number four sounds the same as the word for death), 5= too much. Now, a question for you: when people give wines or champagnes as a gift, how many bottles do you think the Chinese will give? ……The right answer will be at the end of the page.

More information about gifts:

1. When you give a man a tie, it means…that you want to tie him. Basically, it means that you really love him! Mostly, girlfriends will give it to their boyfriends.
2. When you give a person a clock, especially an old person, it means that you want him to die. It is also because of the same sound for clock and ending in Chinese.
3. Please do not give a pair of shoes to someone you love, because it means that they will wear your shoes and run away from you!

For more information, follow the Chinese Culture Club on Facebook or contact them at chineseclub@johncabot.edu

Answer: Normally 2 because it is a pair but 3 is okay too.