---
title: How to ruin a puzzle in Chinese
author: George Mandis <george@mand.is>
date: 2014-06-13
tags: post, post, hong kong, puzzles, science museum, translations
---

<p>Last October <a title="Soundtrack to the Hong Kong Science Museum" href="/2014/04/soundtrack-hong-kong-science-museum/">I visited the Hong Kong Science Museum</a> while staying with some friends. It was a fun thing to do with little kids and interesting to note the differences and similarities to <a href="http://omsi.edu">OMSI</a> — a science museum we have here in Portland that I used to work at for a short while. Mostly I enjoyed the puzzles and brain-teasers like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Hanoi">Tower of Hanoi</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_puzzle">pyramid puzzles</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram">tangrams</a> and the like.</p>
<p>There was one puzzle I specifically remembered from my  <a href="http://omsi.edu/">OMSI</a> days, but the solution was slightly (and understandably, as the solution requires knowing English) ruined by the Chinese translation:</p>
<p><a href="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/georgemandis/media/2013-11-06-12.30.28.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-843" src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/georgemandis/media/2013-11-06-12.30.28-768x1024.jpg" alt="2013-11-06-12.30.28" width="768" height="1024" /></a></p>
<p><em>Spoiler</em>: you remove the blocks to spell the word TEN. On your first attempt, if you're a native English-speaker,  you're probably thinking about the quantity of sticks left and not spelling the word. Result: Brain. Successfully. Teased.</p>
<p>But because the solution is dependent on English they needed to provide more of a hint in the Chinese explanation.</p>
<p>Kind of funny.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>