I disagree with this comment. I'm way down from middle class and I just got back from a very long trip in a developing country.
The experience has changed me from head to toes in ways I wouldn't have conceived. I am so happy that I had was able to change who I was and to deviate from the life that I would have lived if I hadn't gone.
Not everyone who travels does it for "status" (in fact I would say that people who do that are a vocal minority)
I did the same thing — I had $5k to my name and quit my job and traveled through Central America for 3 months. A completely life changing experience, and I met my eventual wife who was taking Spanish classes down there and happened to live near my home town.
I don’t think anybody stays at $5 a night hostels in Guatemala for status.
>a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations
Oh, that makes more sense. The first definition seems nearly self-evident; what nation state doesn't want to protect its own interest? But there's certainly a distinction in promoting oneself above others.
It also means other things like "ice", but "sick" is the first thing that comes to mind, and in China this is especially a big deal due to superstitions. Naming things is very important here.
amusing anecdote: I remember a discussion about someone who wanted to name his shop 森林木 (three trees symbol, two trees symbol, one tree symbol) and everyone told him it was a bad idea and it would fail because the trees where getting fewer and fewer and that this name was an omen of bankruptcy, and if anything he should put it in the opposite order. (He ended up choosing a different name entirely)
Bing is a really bad name, even tho this had probably nothing to do with it's relative failure
No, "bing" by itself does not mean sick. The sound "bing" maps to at least 59 possible characters across the 4 tones[0] of Mandarin. Only one particular character that maps to "bing4" means sick and it's one out of at least 21 possibilities[1], though I'll grant that it's the one that people are most likely to think of first.
Moreover, as it's normally pronounced by westerners, Bing would most likely map to "bing1" anyway.
