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Q: Can Chinese read the way you write the number 4?
I was taught to write the number 4 with an open top and have written it like that my whole life in America, yet Chinese people always think I'm writing the number 9. Do people write the number 9 like that? Has anyone else had this problem? Do people in other countries write their 4s like I do?
I find lots of Chinese write "p" instead of "9". That is weird. As for 4, I have never had trouble.
And the way to write "1" and "7". Of course, I'm all wrong, and showing example of cursive writing from abroad won't convince anybody.
If you teach English it's not really important how you write numbers, letters however...
I've encountered the 4 problem a lot. I also write mine with open tops. Chinese always insist that you wrote it "wrong" when it isn't wrong at all. The 7 and the 1's also seem confusing for them, albeit in a slightly lesser extent..
@hi2u: How can a number 4 be mistaken for a 9? A Chinese 9? I also write an 'open' 4, though my left line is still as high as keyboard 4s.
7 = big source of discussion, students look bemused at what appears to be a three-stroke Chinese character;
1 = came up a few times, students deem even the smallest line at the top to be inaccurate and confusing, and a bottom line still doesn't clarify it for them. The number 1 is *not* a Chinese character rotated 90 degrees!;
4 = actually hasn't come up at all.
And this is criticism of my formal whiteboard numbers, not some hasty shorthand. It's probably because Chinese use our numbers too, so they assume their way is correct of course.
I doubt they are as critical of their own handwriting in Chinese. Some are just interlocked scribbles that even the original writer struggles to recognize. 1s and 9s do indeed appear to look like 7s and Ps, respectively. Watch what happens when we make the slightest alignment error during an attempt to write a Chinese character...
Oh, you can write Chinese... BADLY. How awful. You insult my culture. You so bad!
