fourth floor

[Scoobyqueen]

My office in Germany is located on the fourth floor. Whenever I have visitors from China they always react the same way when they realise this.

[chrix]

In medieval times, four was the number of the Mundane (three being the number of the Trinity), for instance there were four seasons, four elements, four cardinal directions etc.

I don't think this is a big issue nowadays. Well, there's some lingering superstition about 13 in Germany, I haven't noticed any omissions in buildings, but I think some hotels might not have a 13th floor...

[Erbse]

Being a German I can say 4 is neither good or bad. A number like all the other numbers. Some people have problems with the 13, but I guess it's not really important. Personally I tried to use 13 in games of luck and couldn't see any difference to other numbers. I'm sure most other people (except some old people) will agree here. When someone says, hey that's 13, unlucky... that's more of a joke today and material to fill pages in magazines of questionable entertainment value.

[gougou]

Our entire department is on the fourth floor; none of my Chinese coworkers ever complained. And while I do dread coming here, that's for entirely different reasons...

[gato]

When I was growing up in China in the 1980s when it was more communist, nobody talked about 8 being lucky and 4 being bad. These superstition are new for most people, and are traditions that have come back after the collapse of communism, by way of Hong Kong and Taiwan probably.

One interesting thing is that 6 and 9 are considered lucky nowadays, but probably more so in the Mandarin-speaking North than the South. 6 sounds like the word for smooth in Mandarin, but probably not in southern dialects. 6 is pronounced "lo" in Shanghainese, for instance, which doesn't sound close to a lucky word as far I know.

See here.

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/58968429.html?fr=qrl&cid=201&index=4&fr2=query

认为6和8是吉利数字的由来？

[roddy]

These superstition are new for most people, and are traditions that have come back after the collapse of communism, by way of Hong Kong and Taiwan probably.

And it's more about status and being seen to make an effort more than anything else I think - you don't buy a cell phone number with lots of eights and get married on the eighth of August because you think it'll make you lucky, you do it so people can see you spend more on trivial things like cell phone numbers and are romantic. Nobody is concerned enough to run around renumbering the floors on older buildings, all of which have fourth floors.

[gougou]

There seems to be some truth to it though. I heard about this guy who dialled a number full of four's and got hit by a truck...

[Senzhi]

I consider the 8th floor terrible bad luck ... if there's no elevator.

I live on the 4th floor (well ... to me, it's actually the 3rd floor!), and I never heard any complaints from anybody. Nobody seems to care.

[rob07]

Incidentally I have never seen the 13th floor omitted in any European lifts but maybe I didnt pay enough attention.

I used to work in a building that apparently went from the 12th to the 14th floor with no 13th floor. Going down the fire stairs during a fire drill, I discovered that there actually was a 13th floor but it just had machinery related to the lifts on it and was only accessible to building maintenance.

I think there are a few buildings like this, although the building I am in now does have a 13th floor.

[c_redman]

It's very common in the US for floors to go from 12 to 14.

[BertR]

Can't you just say it is actually the 5th floor, but that they have a weird way of counting in Germany?

In China the first floor is the ground floor, while -as far as I know- in Germany the first floor is one level higher.

[adrianlondon]

Yeah, America (and most/all of Asia) start with floor 1 whereas Europe, and hence the UK, start at 0, or "ground floor".

[chrix]

So, we don't know if Scoobyqueen is REALLY on the fourth floor.. Either way she can spin it by saying "we're not really on the fourth floor, because in North America it'd be the fifth floor / in Germany this is actually the third floor"

Now taking Autobahn 7 to Hamburg

[Scoobyqueen]

Thanks for the contributions and thanks for the inspirational remarks which I can now use next time. Realy like this one as this will make them puzzled:

"we're not really on the fourth floor, because in North America it'd be the fifth floor / in Germany this is actually the third floor"

Now taking Autobahn 7 to Hamburg

Isnt that the one over Kasseler berg? That's one of the the best autobahn bits for a scoob. Hope you are in one!

[chrix]

hat's one of the the best autobahn bits for a scoob

Scoob, as in Subaru?

Isnt that the one over Kasseler berg?

Yep, somewhere in the South... but between Holstein and Hamburg, there are no Berge .. I once visited a friend near Stuttgart and we found it quite funny that we were both living by the A7... I felt the same way when I went to both Santa Monica and Jacksonville from Houston, all on the I-10

[Scoobyqueen]

Yep, somewhere in the South... but between Holstein and Hamburg, there are no Berge .. I once visited a friend near Stuttgart and we found it quite funny that we were both living by the A7

I forgot it was that long. My only association is the curvy bit around Kasselerberg in a territory where a scoob (as in Subaru impreza, not the cooking model) feels at home.

[chrix]

Yes, but you're right, the Kasselerberge are where young Northerners have traditionally put their rides to the test.... That's when you sorely miss all that additional horse power a better car would have had...

[crazy-meiguoren]

In the 1970s, I used to work for a legal newspaper in San Francisco, delivering proofs of publications to downtown customers who published legal notices. I was surprised to see how many buildings went from floor 12 to 14. One skyscraper had a gap where the 13th floor should have been. The city does not have a 13th Avenue, they call it Funston instead. They have a 13th Street, but it's hidden under a freeway viaduct for its entire length.

One hotel I stayed at in Reno did not have Room 13: it went from 12 to 14.

The number superstition does not hold true. Good and bad things happen randomly regardless of the day's number. I'm not afraid of Friday the 13th. I love all Fridays! If red is considered a lucky color, tied in with prosperity, I'm not convinced - I used to deliver pizza, where a red shirt was part of the uniform. I still had nights where the tips were bad. Too many in fact.

Now, about people going crazy on full moon nights, that's another thing...

[chrix]

Actually I don't like the number 13, just for these cultural reasons. If I see a thread with 13 replies, or an anki deck with 13 due cards, I do feel an urge about doing something about it

[trien27]

I used to work in a building that apparently went from the 12th to the 14th floor with no 13th floor. Going down the fire stairs during a fire drill, I discovered that there actually was a 13th floor but it just had machinery related to the lifts on it and was only accessible to building maintenance.

Where I work now, there's no 13th or 15th floor buttons in the elevators. Computers are on the 14th floor. I was told that there's no 13th floor [maybe they changed the name to 14th floor?!]

I've heard in some places in Hong Kong that instead of the 4th floor, they renamed it to 3A in the elevators/lifts?!

I never have triskaidekaphobia [fear of the number 13: from Ancient Greek for three [tris], and [kai], ten [deka], & fear] or paraskevotriskaidekaphobia [fear of Friday the 13th: paraskevEE = Friday in Greek]. Modern Greek for 13 = dekatria [deka = 10; tria = 3]

Fear of 13 stems from Christianity, but Fear of Friday the 13th is due to the horror movie series of the same name.

I have no fear of "死" being similar to "四": This originated from Cantonese, where the initials are s in both words. I don't understand why this went though into Mandarin, where both initials are different, where one is s and the other is sh. The Japanese used the sh initial for both words via Cantonese, so there fore it's reasonable but yet unbelievable, because it's mostly a Cantonese superstition, and not of Japanese origin of any kind.

Edited November 26, 2009 at 10:17 PM by trien27