270 Nature

Do you think that sleeping in the forest would be fun, or scary? Three years ago, Stef Roberts took on a challenge to sleep in the forest for a month, in order to raise money for a homeless charity. He enjoyed the experience being close to nature so much that he has continued to sleep in the forest for the past three years. ShaoLan teaches him the words for “nature” in Chinese and goes on to tell the story behind these characters, including what they have to do with sacrificing dogs!

To say “nature” in Chinese you say 自然. The first character 自 means “self” and looks like a nose, while the second character shows a dog being roasted and represents “sacrifice”! Over the course of many years, the character came to mean “correct.” 自然 can mean “nature” but can also mean “something that comes naturally,” so to specifically refer to “mother nature” or “the great outdoors” you can add the character for “big” at the beginning 大自然.