Let Me Count the Ways

ichi ni san shi go

hitotsu, futatsu, mitsu, yottsu, itsutsu

ikko, nikko, sanko, yonko, gokko

yi, er, san, si, go

eins, zwei, drei, vier, fumpf

unos, dos, tres, quadro, sinko.

odun, dva, tre, cheteree, pyarch ( I don’t know how to spell that in English)

How many ways, can I count to five? A bunch, especially in Japanese which counts things in different ways depending on what you are counting – people, dogs, cows, pens, cars and so on.

Everyday, I plan to write five blogs for this site. Yesterday, I stopped at four. And the only reason I can think of was/is I can’t count. But I can! And in different languages.  So, then why? Uh, I don’t know.

But then I was reminded of the many ways that Japanese and Chinese count. It is a big problem for us gaijins/laowais/foreigners when we head for either of these two Asian countries.

In short, if you plan on doing business in Japan or China, be sure to take your fingers with you.