Scientific journal

Advances in current natural sciences

ISSN 1681-7494

"Перечень" ВАК

ИФ РИНЦ = 0,775

Superstition is a prejudice, representing a belief in some otherworldly forces. It contains an assumption, which is often unconscious, that one can found some protection from these forces or achieve an acceptable compromise with them. A special place among the superstitions is occupied by omens as signs foreshadowing an event. The specificity of superstition’s stability is connected with the fact that the cases of their correctness are firmly fixed, while the cases of their apparent fallibility are displaced. As a result, a person makes a false link between an action and some event which s/he believes to be the result of this action. Signs have deep historical roots and are part of the national communicative culture, so their ignorance may affect negatively the course of communication between representatives of different cultures in intercultural interaction. To confirm this hypothesis, we have interviewed 45 students of KnASTU to find out their knowledge of Chinese omens, as the Chinese are considered to be one of the most superstitious nations. The results are as follows. Only 17.7 % of the respondents know that the Chinese friends should not be treated with peaches (they may take it as a hint, that you want them to leave this world as soon as possible). The remaining part of the respondents thinks that they are kiwi (40 %) and plums (42 %) that have a negative connotation in China. Only 35.5 % of the respondents believe that one cannot present money numbering 250 yuans (the Chinese avoid pronouncing the number 250 as it means «a fool»). Yet 25 % of the respondents believe that clocks can be a good gift, though the expression «to give a watch» means «bring to death» in Chinese. 44 % of the students agreed that one can present a green hat to the groom at the wedding, not knowing that a man with a green hat means «a cuckold» in China. 13 % agreed, that it is appropriate to present a bouquet of 14 flowers to a Chinese girl (while in China the figure 14 means «certain death») and should not give a single flower, though a homonym of that number is «honor», «prize». The bouquet of 11 flowers means that the giver likes the recipient with all his heart and soul, but this option was selected only by 62 % of the respondents. To the question «If you have been served rice, you can ...» 29 % answered «put chopsticks in it» (the Chinese do so only at funerals), 32 % responded «to put them on an empty bowl» (this could bring death). It is not hard to imagine a lot of insults and arguments, which may be caused by the communicants’ lack of knowledge of each other’s culture.