I’ve had some interesting conversations around the lunch table at work this week due to this event.

For example, this is the Year of the Ram. But on the radio/tv etc, some have called it the Year of the Sheep and others have called it the Year of the Goat….so which is it?

My Chinese colleagues explained that in their language, the word for both animals is the same – the only way they differentiate is by a word in front. So let us say the word is XYZ. A sheep is called a wooly XYZ and a goat is called a mountainous XYZ (I’m using English as I have no idea about Mandarin myself)….so this is the year of the XYZ….up to personal choice if it’s a sheep or a goat I guess 🙂

I also happened to mention that I was born in the Year of the Dragon. One of them then mentioned that some people in China find it hard to differentiate between a snake and a dragon. My response: “but dragons have wings!?!”

Well, as it turns out, dragons in China (and some other Asian countries) are not depicted with wings!!!!!!

WHO KNEW!?!?!

My mind was totally blown!

This led me to mention the flag of Bhutan, also known as the land of the peace dragon. I feel sorry for the kids who have to draw a dragon on their flag – in school I struggled with the Aussie flag and it’s mostly straight lines!!