Crisis DOES NOT mean opportunity in Chinese.

President Kennedy once said:

When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters – one represents danger and one represents opportunity.

But President Kennedy was not a Chinese speaker, and Chinese does not work like that.

危机 is the Chinese word for Crisis.

Every Chinese word is made of a combination of characters, and each Chinese character has a meaning. But sometimes people can look at two things and see a connection that isn’t there.

危 – means danger and is a character for danger, but it’s not used as a single word. It’s used in combinations with other characters such as 危险

机 as a charcter is made of 木 wood 几 and actually has 9 different meanings depending on the context 1, machine 2, engine 3, opportunity 4, intention 5, aircraft 6, pivot 7, crucial point 8, flexible 9 organic. And in this context it means “crucial point / moment” – a moment of danger.

So saying that 危机 is made of crisis and opportunity is just the same as saying that “taking a right turn is right (correct) in english”. Just because they are used as the same word.

There are some other ones that people misunderstand:

中国 middle kingdom – I don’t think it should be translated like that, I think it should be translated as China, or central country.

I also don’t think 长安街 should be translated as Long Peace Street. 长安街 is the name of a street that goes across Beijing by the tiananmen square, and news reporters often call it: “Long Peace Street”. It was named after the City Chang’An which was the ancient capital of China, and now called Xi’an. It should be called Chang An Street in English and not “Long Peace Street” or “Eternal Peace Street”. It’s really the same as calling “Oxford Street” in another language ‘ford for Oxen’ Street. It’s obvious that the road is named after the place, and so should be translated into the name of that place, rather than the original meaning.