Korean building superstitions

Ever notice how buildings in the U.S. sometimes don’t have a 13th floor? Well, in Korea, folks try to avoid things related to “four.” As you can see in the picture, it’s not “4,” it’s “F.”

They get it from Chinese, where the word four (si4, 四) sounds simlar to the word for death (si3, 死). When Korean and Japan imported those words (as 사 and し, respectively), they also brought in the superstitions. Japanese, in fact, more commonly use the words yon and nana in place of shi (four) and shichi (seven) just to avoid that syllable.

By comparison, eight is one of the luckiest numbers, though only in China. The Beijing Olympics will start on August 8, 2008. Shanghai’s Jinmao Tower has 88 floors. Until recently, Korea hasn’t really had any lucky numbers, though because of Western influence, seven is now considered lucky.