兄 and 哥

In English, the word "brother" can mean either an elder brother, or the younger brother.

In Chinese, elder brother is "哥哥", while younger brother is "弟弟".

In Japanese, elder brother is "兄", while younger brother is "弟".


So teacher was sharing an incident in her other class where she teaches Chinese.

One of her students, a Japanese, was asked to write "elder brother" in Chinese. Because Chinese and Japanese had words to differentiate the elder from the younger brother, unlike English, the student had no problems understanding what was needed. The thing she couldn't do was remembering the words for "elder brother" in Chinese.

And so in the end she wrote... "兄兄".