Numbers

2382349283618238523491037503782245234965728351082834346822174603782056273338963162530719453826354283462038746252637461023564379235278192636373951236792754734825987523476828379492563478365289187623534392753746827382462018723642378253647352529346510102837658372556102835454639276859237642538273012738453903030364038872168725768023888326791555567920463234760178324387026346827538102867139345277522456101492019248191239164556374620347279165839273460348203923657832345578364822936220263945 :)

I love numbers. So much. With pi day being about a week ago (3/14/15 9:26 am), I thought it necessary to write a post about how beautifully complex numbers are. Did you ever realize how perplexing numbers can be when you move overseas?

Take the number 1,234,567,000.89 for example!

In Turkey it is written like this: 1.234.567.000,89

And, even better, in Korea, like this: 12,3456,7000.89

This is an accounting major's nightmare. 

During my finance internship in Istanbul over Christmas break, I worked with import and export numbers to and from foreign vendors. When transferring numbers between spreadsheets, I had to make sure I changed the decimal points and commas used to accommodate for the changes in numbering systems between countries.

Here in Korea, I have different problems. Sometimes my accounting and management classes get confusing when the teacher writes numbers on the board, using commas every four digits instead of every three.

But it's not just the way numbers are written that is difficult. I grew up knowing the Chinese numbers (I learned from high school friends), and last summer I completed a finance internship in Thailand, where I learned the Thai numbers very well. Take a look at the some of the similarities between the three sets of numbers below:

                               1          2       3         4      5      6        7        8       9         10
Chinese Numbers: yī,        èr,     sān,     sì,    wǔ,  liù,     qī,      bā,     jiǔ,     shí

Thai Numbers:      nueng,  song, sam,   si,    ha,   hok,   chet,   paet,  kao,   sip

Korean Numbers:  il,         i,       sam,    sa,   o,     yuk,   chil,   pal,    gu,     sip

And to make things even more fascinating, Korea has two sets of numbers. The one above is called "Sino-Korean" numbers, and has a Chinese origin. The set below are "Native-Korean" numbers:

1        2     3    4     5          6            7         8            9        10

hana, dul, set, net, daseot, yeoseot, ilgob, yeodeol, ahop, yeol

Sino-Korean numbers are used for "reading":

• Floor numbers, "Floor 7"
• Room numbers, "Room 5410"
• Amounts of money, "800 won"
• "This is page 11."

Native-Korean numbers are used for "counting":

• "There are 11 pages."
• "I want 3 apples."
• "I am 22 years old."

Don't even try to think about which numbers you would use when you're "counting" the number of money bills you have, or when you're "reading" about a boy counting apples. Just when you have it straight, you'll be baffled again when they mix the Native-Korean and Sino-Korean numbers for telling time. I have been here a month, and I am still trying to learn the numbers and when to use each system!

I love it all so very much though! Numbers are absolutely wonderful. :)