“他今年多大？”
“How old is he?”

“宋华一九八二年十月二十七日出生，属狗。”
“Song Hua was born on August 27th, 1982. He belongs to dog.”

今天我们先来看一句话：“宋华一九八二年十月二十七日出生，属狗。”
In the dialogue, we have a sentence which is “Song Hua yi jiu ba er nian shi yue ershiqi ri chusheng, shu gou”.

句子的前半部分，我想大家都明白是什么意思，即宋华出生于1982年10月27日。
Well, we understand the first part of the sentence pretty well, which means Song Hua was born on August 27th, 1982.

但是“属狗”是什么意思呢？
What does “shu gou” mean?

“属”就是属于的意思，“狗”就是狗这种动物。
“Shu” means “belong to”, and “gou” means “dog”.

那么“属于狗”到底指什么？
What does mean “belong to dog”?

实际上这是说他出生于狗年。
But it means he was born in the year of dog.

你也许听说过中国人用十二生肖动物作为纪年的周期系统。
Maybe you know that we Chinese people have a kind of zodiac system based on twelve animals.

我们用十二种动物来标记不同的十二个年份。
We have twelve animals to mark different twelve years.

它们不断循环，例如今年是狗年，再过十二年，就又是狗年。
And it’s in a cycle, for instance, this year is the year of dog, and in the other twelve years we have another year of dog.

这十二种动物的排列顺序是固定的。
And those twelve animals are in the very set order.

不能随意改变。
We cannot change that.

因此你可以根据动物的顺序来判断哪一年是哪一年。
So you can follow the order of twelve animals, and you can tell which year is which.

这十二种动物是：鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗、猪。
Now the twelve animals are “shu (mouse)”, “niu (ox)”, “hu (tiger)”, “tu (rabbit)”, “long (dragon)”, “she (snake)”, “ma (horse)”, “yang (sheep)”, “hou (monkey)”, “ji (rooster)”, “gou (dog)”, “zhu (pig)”.

它们当中除了“龙”不是真正存在的动物，其它的都是。
Well, among the twelve animals, eleven of them are real ones, real animals but the “dragon”.

“龙”是想象中的动物，在中国文化中，“龙”并不是邪恶的。
“Dragon” is the imaginary one, and in Chinese culture “dragon” is not a fierce evil animal.

它是好运、吉祥的化身。
“Dragon” always does something good to us.

因此“龙”在中国文化中是一种美好的形象。
So “Dragon” in Chinese culture is some good image.

正如我们刚才所说的，如果你知道了十二种动物的顺序，你就能判断哪一年是什么年了。
Just now we said that if you know the system of those twelve animals, you can find out which year is which.

现在我们来试试看。
And now let’s try.

比如，2007年是猪年，你就能知道2008年是鼠年。
For instance, 2007 is the year of pig, and you can figure it out that 2008 is the year of mouse, “shu nian”.

而2006年则是狗年。
And 2006 is the year of dog, “gou nian”.

只要你知道了一个年份的生肖，通过加和减12的倍数，你就可以算出已经过去的和未来的年份各是什么年了。
If you know the year, you can plus or minus “twelve times number”, you can find the year in the history and the year in the future of the same zodiac sign which means the same animal.

比如，你已经知道2007年是猪年。
For instance, 2007 is the year of pig.

2007加一个12就是2019；2007减去一个12就是1995；2007减去两个12就是1983；2007减去三个12就是1971。
Plus “twelve times one”, you get 2019; minus “twelve times one”, you get 1995; minus “twelve times two”, you get 1983; minus “twelve times three”, you get 1971.

因此，我们就能知道2007年、2019年、1995年、1983年和1971年都是猪年。
Therefore, we know that 2007, 2019, 1995, 1983, 1971 are all years of pig.

在这些年份出生的人，他们就都属猪。
So people born in those years are people born in the year of pig.

这些属相动物，也就是中国文化中的生肖符号，它们也有一种社会功能。
Well, those animals, I mean the zodiac signs of Chinese culture, also have some social functions.

比如，如果你觉得直接问别人“你多大了”不是很妥当，有时你可以婉转地问“你是哪年出生的？”“你属什么的？”不过要注意有的情况下，这样问可能也不太合适。
For instance, if you think that is not really proper to ask “how old are you”, sometimes you can ask “in which year were you born”, or “Ni shu shenme de”, or sometime even this is not proper among some people.

根据一个人的属相你就能大致算出对方是哪年出生的，也能知道他的大概年龄。
By asking their zodiac sign you can figure out roughly which year they were born, and roughly how old they are you want know.

还有一种说法叫做“本命年”，指的是跟你的属相相同的年份。
And also we have a term of “benmingnian”, which means the year of your animal.

比如说，你出生的那年是狗年，而今年正好是狗年，那么今年就是你的“本命年”。
For instance, if you were born in the year of dog, and this year is a year of dog, and this is your “benmingnian”.

“本命年”不像生日。
“Benmingnian” is not like a birthday.

不是用来庆祝的。
It is not a year to celebrate.

它并不是一个会给你带来好运的年份。
It is not a year which can bring you good lucks.

正好相反，它可能会给你带来不好的运气。
Just on the contrary, it will bring you some potential bad lucks.

因此“本命年”对你而言，是要特别小心的一年，人们经常会想一些办法来消灾、去除那些霉运。
So “benmingnian” is not really a good year for you, and usually we have some measures to try to get rid of those bad lucks.

比如穿戴一些红色的东西。
We wear something red to get rid of those bad lucks.

你会发现有人系着红腰带，戴着用红丝线做的手环、脚链或者穿着红袜子。
So you can see some Chinese people wear red waist belt, or they use some red threads to make ankle bracelet to wear them above or in their socks.

这就是人们常用的去除“本命年”霉运的方法。
So those are the measures we take to try to get rid of those bad lucks of the “benmingnian”.

因此“本命年”和中国的生肖系统有着密切的联系。
So “benmingnian” is something closely related to the Chinese zodiac system.

鼠，牛，虎，兔，龙，蛇，马，羊，猴，鸡，狗，猪
Mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, pig

你属什么的？
Which zodiac do you belong to?