There was a funeral taking place near my home. On the side of the van was painted the name of the company: XXX Casket Company, XXX 寿板. I walked by thinking the Chinese name to be a bit puzzling.
In Chinese, "casket" is 棺材. Using the literal word "casket" in a company name may be considered crude or rude, since it refers to death, which often is a taboo subject in Chinese society. Chinese often will use a pseudonym instead, to soften the tone, yet make it sound acceptable to the grieving family. In this case, the company chose 寿板.
寿 (shou4) means life. It is often used to wish an elderly person on his birthday, wishing him a long life e.g. 寿比南山 or "May you live longer than the southern hills".
板 (ban3) means a wooden board. In this case, it refers to the wooden coffin.
What made me puzzled was the pairing of the two words meaning "life" and "coffin", signaling death. Seems like an oxymoron to me!
I got onto Google Translate and laughed even more! Google Translate gave this: 寿板 = "life board". Huh? What's that supposed to mean? I have never really trusted Google Translate to begin with. This just confirms my suspicions. Do not trust electronic translation systems. Trust the human being instead.
The best thing you can do for yourself is to learn a new language. That way, you will not have to rely on a tool or another person to translate and explain the meaning.
Start learning a new language today!
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