We had a cool cultural nugget through the language yesterday. Bare with the details....
The word "qian" means "ahead, in front of". However, so say "2 years ago", you say "[2 years] qian". To us, it sounds like we are saying the opposite of its meaning. Likewise, "hou" means "behind, in back of", but when you say "2 years into the future", you say "hou [year]". Again, it sounds like you are saying the opposite of the words' meaning.
Except for one cultural, philosophical part of their worldview. The Chinese are emphatically past-centered. Americans are overwhelmingly future driven...we are always thnking of what's ahead. Thus, we tend to thnk of time linearly--as if on a line--where the past is behind us and the future is ahead of us. With the Chinese, however, they are always looking at the past. Thus, the past {i.e. 2 years ago} has happened and is thus before or in front of their attention. The future is not yet and so it is unseen or hidden. 2 years into the future is "behind them" in the respect that they are not able to see it now.
Very logical if you come at it from a different set of assumptions....
