I understand that symbols are powerful. They put suggestions in your mind before you can finish thinking, much like Google's autocomplete giving suggestions before you're done typing, except that there are way less suggestions.
When you a see a "swooshing-tick", you immediately know it's Nike. A cross with an elongated bottom, you'd probably think Christianity or Jesus.
However, to get the suggestion from a symbol, we must have been exposed to it or its meaning before. I'm guessing this is where advertising is used to bridge the gap. If the person does not voluntarily expose themselves to the symbol, then advertising exposes the symbol to the person.
I also realize that Chinese language is a language in which every word is a symbol. Except that maybe the advertising bit doesn't quite apply.
So, near to where I'm working, there is this place with a locked door, and because this place is not within the main area of the building, people are usually not present there, and even if they are, there is no reason to stay around.
The door is not locked conventionally. Instead, the doorknob has been removed, and a chain goes through the resulting hole and loops back out. A padlock then secures the chain to a metal loop protruding from the door frame. The rubbish dump on that floor also has been sealed up.
Okay, I got sidetracked. So the door is locked and its next to a cargo lift, in an often empty place. Well, on the door, the words written are "哭鬼屋" literally, the crying ghost's residence.
Well, when I was alone there waiting for the really slow cargo lift, I believe that I started imagining sounds, like moans and groans. Maybe I did hear them. Can't tell.
What I can tell is that if the words weren't there, then I probably wouldn't even have considered the possibility of a crying ghost. But I guess the symbols had an effect on me...
On the other hand, if the symbols weren't there, I'd probably have gotten the shock of my life so far if I got to find out first hand if it were there. So maybe the placing of those symbols isn't that bad...
Maybe I ought to start learning to channel my qi to do ward them off or something. O_o
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Oh. After hating the Chinese language learning system in school where I was on consistently in the borderline pass (read: borderline fail) zone, I actually like the language and the elements that make up the language a lot more after leaving the system. I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't do very well in O-level Chinese though...
