China and Numbers

We talked about lucky and unlucky numbers in my Comprehensive class today.

Our teacher said that 4 (四, pronounced sì) is an unlucky number in China because it has the same pronunciation as "death" (死, pronounced sǐ). Only the tone is different.

On the other hand, 8 is a lucky number. That's because 8 (八, pronounced bā) is similar to the word for "to get rich" (发 from 发财, pronounced fā).