I saw this sign in an office when waiting to hand in some paperwork. What really struck me was how much information you can squeeze into a small space using Chinese characters! Most everyday Chinese words are one or two characters, whereas most English words need four or five letters.
This sign is a great example. The English six-letter word, ‘closed’, while giving you the essential meaning, doesn’t match the information content of the Chinese. A literal translation of these six Chinese characters might be:
This counter is temporarily not accepting applications.
That’s a lot of meaning from six characters! Much more than from our six-letter word.
